Dáil debates

Wednesday, 27 April 2016

4:25 pm

Photo of Katherine ZapponeKatherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to make a statement on Irish Water. I agree with others in the House that we should have been able to speak on this issue sooner, as represented by the manner in which I voted yesterday.

In my view one of the primary reasons the establishment, governance and operation of Irish Water has been so excessively problematic is because there was not and still is not adequate and equal engagement of all parliamentarians on how to invest in and manage a mammoth systemic upgraded change to our water infrastructure. Significant mistakes were made in the past and the legacy of these mistakes looms large in the present. I expect then that our statements today will be heard and considered by the leaders and members of both negotiating teams who are attempting to form a minority Government. It is a positive development that both parties at working out a process whereby Irish Water and the current funding model is to be reviewed through independent expertise and an Oireachtas committee that should be - will be - operating under the new politics rules of Dáil reform and will then be brought before this Chamber to be voted on. No doubt there will be mobilisation, protest and other forms of citizen engagement as this process unfolds. I, of course, welcome that too.

Owing to decades of under-investment by successive Governments we continue to live in a country where the water and water system do not support with adequacy and sustainability the health, well-being and safety of our people, food and land. I want to outline four prime principles that I believe should be integral to how we plan for systemic change to our water infrastructure and thereby boost the wellness of our people or, as mentioned by Deputy Eamon Ryan, our connection to nature. These principles are the ones on which I stood in Dublin South-West as an Independent candidate. First, the establishment, management and operation of one national utility is the most efficient and effective way to bring our water infrastructure up to the high standard required for this and future generations. Second, this one national utility ought to be placed in public ownership through a constitutional referendum. We should never move towards a day when the natural resource of water is placed outside of the right of every citizen and resident. This can only be guaranteed, in my view, through changing our foundational legal document to ensure that the governance and operation of that natural resource remains within public ownership. I agree with Deputy Micheál Martin that it will take time to do that but it is worth us spending that time, alongside the process of a commission and an Oireachtas committee, following which the matter will then come before the Dáil. Third, as independent experts and law makers map out and implement the best way to protect, sustain and fund our water systems, a public education initiative, perhaps along the lines referred to by Deputy Regina Doherty, should be put in place so that our people can contribute to and learn from the process of systemic change as it unfolds. Fourth, our funding model for water should encourage habits of conservation of this precious natural resource, and no one who cannot pay for water should have to pay for it - that being a prime principle of fairness. However, the principle of fairness does not have to contradict the principle of conservation. I am in favour of a funding model that is fair and conserves, one that encourages equality and ecology simultaneously.

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