Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will get back to the amendments. Amendment No. 21 states:

23A.(1) Where water services are provided to a dwelling by Irish Water, the owner of the dwelling shall, subject to subsections (2) and (3)—

(a) register with Irish Water as a customer and confirm whether or not the dwelling is his or her principal private residence,

I take it there is now an onus on everybody to register with Irish Water. While I cannot see it here, presumably the legislation provides for some penalty for not registering with Irish Water, because there is never a provision in a Bill without a penalty for not complying with that provision. When the Minister is replying, he might outline the penalty for not registering with Irish Water. The amendment further states:

(6) A person who registers with, or notifies, Irish Water under subsection (1) and provides information which to his or her knowledge is false or misleading in a material respect commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a class A fine.

That covers a person who registers and gives information that is false, but it does not clarify for me what happens if they do not register. Let us suppose I am correct that there is a penalty for not registering. It would not make sense to have a Bill with an obligation but without a penalty. This goes back to what I was saying about the macho war going on between the two sides here.

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