Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State knows as well as I that, once a commercial water service is available in Ireland, EU competition rules will insist that the market be opened up. We do not have to talk about a referendum or who owns the pipes. The same happened with the supply of electricity. The ESB used to supply electricity but it has been forced, through competition, to divest over 50% of its assets to allow competition into the market. As sure as night follows day, this is what will be attempted with Irish Water but it will never work because it is a failed financial fiasco. It will never get off the ground because of the way the Government has gone about its business. It will never be a valid commercial organisation. EUROSTAT knows this and the Irish Water plan for the next seven years makes no mention of going back to EUROSTAT because it knows it will be laughed out of court. The Department of Finance officials, based on the memos we have read, always knew there would be a problem with EUROSTAT. The Government has tried several things to tweak it, including by means of the provision of the water conservation grant, but people saw through that. It tried to exempt people from water rates to reduce their cost base to get it through EUROSTAT but every little trick it has pulled has failed. Every aspect of Irish Water is a failure.

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