Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for this opportunity to contribute to today's discussion. We cannot really call it a debate because there is nothing happening here. We will talk to the air and it will fizzle out at 6.30 p.m. That will be the end of it. I would like to speak about the details that are emerging in the media at the minute. I refer to the speculation about the deal that has been done between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on water charges. It has been suggested that a commission of investigation will look at a proper charging regime. This shows that Fianna Fáil is not really opposed to water charges at all. It is just using this issue as a means of making it look like it is driving a hard bargain as it negotiates going into government with Fine Gael and tries to maintain its domination of the Opposition benches. It is being clearly shown to the people of this country that this is the case. When the moment is opportune for Fianna Fáil, it will go along with whatever charging regime is decided for it by the commission. That might happen in a year or two. It could be two and a half years or whatever. We hear talk about the commission reporting in nine months, but it will probably take a number of months for the terms of reference to be established and for the commission to be established and to get up and running. We will hear about delays then. They will achieve their moratorium on water charging. They will probably stretch it out to 18 months or two years. Fine Gael will go along with that nicely as well. That will deal with the issue. Ultimately, we will come back to the imposition of water taxes on citizens across the country.

It is a fact that people are paying twice for water services. Deputy Regina Doherty referred to the "argument about whether people should pay for water out of their left pocket or their right pocket". In fact, it is being taken out of both pockets. Citizens are already paying for water and have already paid for water. As one listens to speakers on the Government benches in this House, one would think absolutely nothing was ever done with this country's water services before the establishment of Irish Water in 2014. I remind those who have spoken about the 34 plants that have been built by Irish Water that the groundwork and the preparation for all those plants was done by the local authorities over the years. The real problem with water services in this country prior to the establishment of Irish Water was that the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, through the Government, constantly withheld money from the local authorities. They held up the delivery of projects at every stage of the process. Local authorities were not given the ability to deliver projects in a timely fashion. They had to wait for approvals from the Government at every step along the way. The Department held everything up in that way. That was how they set out to do their business.

The myth that Irish Water is a dynamic organisation delivering all of these projects is just that - a myth. The water charges it is levying on people do not even meet the cost of sending out water bills. As such this charge is not financing water services in this country and will not do so in the future.

Another myth is that this is all about water conservation. Prior to being elected to this House I worked in water services for 16 years. The only way to conserve water is through a district metering programme of the mains. Installing meters at every house will not identify where the real losses are occurring. Water wastage is being dressed up as a consumer problem in terms of citizens possibly having a bath every day or boiling their kettles more than twice a day. The vast majority of the losses in the water system occur on the mains rather than in consumer households. A proper district metering programme would correctly identify the households wherein the losses are occurring, thus enabling any necessary leaks at those households or to the mains to be repaired. That is the only way water can be conserved and savings can be achieved on water production costs across the country thus bringing about real change.

To say that the local authorities were the cause of the malaise in the water system and that Irish Water will resolve the problem is disingenuous. It is not the reality and those on the Government benches need to come to terms with that. This deal will halt the campaign against the water tax for a couple of years but that campaign will be ready to go again whenever Fianna Fáil decides to levy the charges again.

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