Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I rise to support the Government amendment and to oppose the Sinn Féin motion. Picking up on a theme touched on the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, it strikes me that, unfortunately, there are two things we discuss when we talk about water in Ireland. One is water policy, which we should talk about, and the other is the old politics, which is very much represented by the kind of water politics we have seen represented in the past couple of years.

If we were to have a rational and evidence-based debate on water policy in Ireland, we would probably all agree on five things. We would agree that it should be managed by a national utility just like electricity and gas. Nobody would suggest that those utilities be broken up among 42 local authorities. Water, sewerage and wastewater do not know county boundaries on their way to or from a river and we would all agree that there should be a national utility. We would probably all agree that it should be in public ownership just like all other major strategic assets, which have remained in public ownership despite the fact that Governments have changed. We would probably all agree that metering is a good idea. Of course, it is a good idea. How else do you know where the leaks occur? District metering tells you in which districts the leaks occur and metering properties tells you exactly where the leaks are occurring on private property. That is the best way we can identify where leaks are occurring.

One has to identify where they are occurring before they can be fixed. We would probably all agree that charging by volume above a free allowance is the best and fairest way to charge for water. It is the best way to promote conservation. Education can help but the most effective means-----

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