John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. There is a saying that if one always does what one always did, one always gets what one always got. Today may mark the end of repeating behaviours and policies that simply have not worked. The comments of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, on the immaturity of the approach of my party to this issue and his description of it as national sabotage indicate that while others might have grasped the need to step back and reassess where we are, he certainly has not. It could have been so different.

The establishment of Irish Water had the potential to be as groundbreaking as the establishment of the ESB. However, from the moment it was established, by a guillotined debate in the Dáil and denying the opportunity to discuss amendments or engage in serious in-depth consideration of its remit, to the moment when the former Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Mr. Phil Hogan, threatened to punish non-payers through the reduction of their water supply to a trickle the die was cast.

Like other Deputies, I fought the local elections in 2014. It was apparent even then, or from those early days in the history of Irish Water, that there were real and genuine fears among all classes of people about the scale of the charges that would face them and the scale of the bills they might have to pay. It could have been so different.

The allowances for children and households were adjusted and readjusted continually. There were to be no allowances for teenagers over 18 years. This alonestruck fear into the hearts of parents of college-going children, or those living at home, who had genuine fears about the bills that would come through their doors. By that stage, the debate had been lost, but the Government ploughed on relentlessly, ignoring the fact that there were people who wanted to pay but who simply could not afford to do so because their finances were so tight. There were no allowances ever made to reflect their ability. It could have been so different.

By the time the Government parties had finished, there had been a dozen or so U-turns, from the suspension of water charges for one year in 2014 to the replacement of other planned initiatives with the water conservation payment. I could run my tap from one end of the year to the next and still claim my conservation grant, yet the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, spoke about sabotage and immaturity. Not only that, I could run my tap day in and day out, wash my car every day, have a swimming pool in my back garden, if I could afford it, and at the same time completely disregard my neighbour who might be making painstaking efforts to conserve water. Where is the intelligence in that kind of regime? Where is the justice in it? It could have been so different.

The Government could have had a long lead-in period in the charging for water and educating people, beginning with children in primary school, about the necessity to protect and conserve a finite resource.

Instead, we had children participating in marches with their parents and writing the right to water principle into their 2016 proclamations, yet the Minister lectures us about sabotage. It could have been much different if a metering charging regime had been based on people's abuse rather than use of water.

Tax incentives for domestic water harvesting measures and enhanced building regulations requirements in respect of water could have been introduced. In Massachusetts, for example, one of the latest building regulations requires home designers and builders to design hot water systems that deliver hot water to taps in less than 15 seconds, potentially saving millions of gallons of water annually. How long must we wait for hot water to arrive from the moment we switch on our tap?

The Government was stubborn in the face of the most objective opposition. Irish Water workers had to face into protest after protest from people, many of whom had never participated in a protest in their lives or felt a need to do so. Whole sections of society have become actively politicised by the water charges issue. Perhaps I will have another opportunity to discuss those who claim to be the champions of the anti-water charges cause.

As the Minister may be aware, meters have not been installed in half of my constituency. How did he intend to have meters installed in the remaining parts without encountering significant opposition and protests that would require the deployment of Garda human resources that would be far better invested elsewhere in fighting crime and protecting people? The Minister describes this reasonable question as immature and argues that it could give rise to sabotage.

I reiterate the comments of my party leader, Deputy Micheál Martin. Fianna Fáil is committed to a policy of scrapping the commercial State company, Irish Water, of not applying charges for at least the duration of this Dáil and of implementing a major national investment programme to develop this vital public service.

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