Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not know what is in this deal and I look forward to hearing from my own parliamentary party and from the Fine Gael parliamentary party as to whether or not there is a way forward.

The roots of this debacle go back to 1977 when our predecessors in this Chamber, from all parties and none, engaged in American-style auction politics. Fine Gael decided it would reduce domestic rates and car tax, so Fianna Fáil decided to top that by abolishing domestic rates and car tax. That created two things: the inability of local authorities throughout the country to operate under their own steam and undertake their own projects; and a lack of the right level of financing to do that, rather than depending on the proximity of a senior Minister in one's constituency to back projects that were needed or on population numbers, where greater priority was given to those areas where most people lived. That system of local government funding has struggled along since then and, while we would like to blame it on the troika, Fianna Fáil or the previous Government, that was what led us to where we are today and our need for enough resourcing and enough financing to undertake the works we require.

There is no question but that in 1977, domestic rates required reform because in cases where a man died leaving a large family of nine children in a large farmhouse in rural Ireland, his widow would lease the land for a nominal rent while the nine children were gone to the four corners of the earth. A widow in such circumstances was rated in a very unfair way on the size of her property. We needed a fair reform of the process whereby those who could pay would pay. There should be a local authority contribution for refuse collection and water and all of those things were included at that time but since those days, the people who occupied these Houses have made a complete mess of it, collectively. Here we are today, struggling with that outcome and trying to fund everything from general taxation. I appreciate the dilemma before the Houses in respect of this issue.

The establishment of Irish Water was like setting up Unilever to run a corner shop. It put the cart before the horse in a major way, a cart populated by people who were used to spending the public's money without any need to focus on where the money would come from or whether there was affordability and people had the ability to pay. We had 31 local authorities throughout the country populated with good staff who knew what schemes had to be undertaken. In my own constituency of Sligo, for example, there are three schemes known as the bundle scheme, involving Grange, Tubbercurry and Strandhill, all shovel-ready for a number of years. Instead of Irish Water and water rates bringing the project forward, it has put it into reverse. Irish Water personnel on service level agreements with Sligo County Council have the same level of expertise and know what work needs to be done but the resources are not being provided to them and any decision they make has to be laundered through some outfit in Cork before they are allowed to proceed in any way. Those three schemes are being scaled back so that if they are built, they will not be able to provide for any additional housing or business. This is in Sligo where the IDA is about to embark on a 70-acre park for industry, so we are not taking cognisance of any of those things. If we were to take the money that was spent on meters and on the establishment of Irish Water, for which there are different figures up to €750 million, and distributed that money throughout the 31 local authorities to the expertise that is there on site, how much further down the road could we be towards the €5.5 billion that we need all over the country? I am giving an example from Sligo but I am sure that this is replicated in Dublin, where we have infrastructure that is hundreds of years old, and in every village and rural area throughout the country.

If today is the day we draw a line in the sand and begin to move forward, I am glad the power over charges and structures will lie with this House and the sum of all the people of this House, whether Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael or anybody else who ran the place effectively as a dictatorship disguised as a democracy. I welcome future debates on the issue. I do not know what is in the deal but I hope the essence of the deal is that people in this House, of whatever colour, will have the say on the future of these issues.

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