Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am proud to have signed my name to this Private Members' motion. The coalition Government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents must understand clearly that any attempt to rescue Irish Water or water charges or to keep open the door for future privatisation will be doomed to failure. This is the third attempt by the establishment to commodify the country's water and it has been defeated three times through mass opposition and people power. In 2015, hundreds and thousands of people came out, not to reduce water charges but to abolish them. In the election in 2016, the people spoke and elected a majority of Deputies in this Dáil not to send the matter to a commission, but to abolish the charges. It was a privilege today to introduce the Thirty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Water in Public Ownership) (No. 2) Bill 2016. It was signed by 29 Deputies from the progressive independent left, that is, by Deputies from Independents4Change, Sinn Féin and Anti-Austerity Alliance-People before Profit, as well as by an Independent Alliance Deputy. The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Constitution through a referendum and when that Bill comes onto the agenda, I urge all those Members who stated tonight they support a referendum to keep water as a public service to support that Bill in order that it will pass.

However, that will not be the end of the matter, because a solution and a proper plan of action are needed to deal with the mess the water services are in due to decades of neglect and underinvestment by successive Governments. The business plan put forward last year by Irish Water is a joke when almost 1 million people are under threat of water contamination, almost 50% of treated water is lost in the system and the water pipes and sewers on average are twice as old as in Europe in general. Irish Water planned to reduce leakage from a rate of 49% to a rate of 38% by 2021. The international norm is 10% and the rate in the United Kingdom is 23%. Reducing leakage to a rate of 38% is not a plan but is more of the same.

As my time is running out, I simply will state that a real plan for investment and a body for oversight of investment in the renewal and maintenance of the system are needed. Irish Water is not that body and a national water and sanitation board could do that. Irish Water must go together with the charges and this is what will happen. It would be better to clear the decks now in order to have a commission to ascertain how to implement the progressive system that must be put in place.

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