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

I welcome the opportunity to speak to the Bill and commend my colleagues who participated in the talks on the formation of a Government and negotiated to ensure the Bill would form part of the Fianna Fáil agreement to facilitate a minority Government.

I represent a constituency that is divided on water charges. In one part, albeit one that is not restricted geographically, significant resistance to the water metering programme continues, while in another part, the programme did not meet such resistance and was greeted with enthusiasm by some.

Speaking previously on this issue, I noted how the establishment of Irish Water had the potential to be a ground-breaking development on a par with the establishment of the ESB. As I pointed out at the time, however, Irish Water's destiny was sealed from the moment it was established, accommodated by a guillotined debate in this Chamber when elected Members were denied an opportunity to discuss amendments or engage in any serious worthwhile debate. The previous Government then engaged in perhaps a dozen U-turns and the then Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan, threatened to punish non-payers by reducing their water supply to a trickle.

It could have been so different. The speed with which the previous coalition moved to shoehorn this utility into existence raised deep suspicions among members of the pubic about the possibility of water services being privatised. This, with the fact that thousands of people, many of whom are vulnerable and rely on State assistance and entitlements, simply could not afford to pay, deeply angered people. This anger was felt not only by traditionally vulnerable people but also by public servants, gardaí, nurses and teachers, all of whom had been put to the pin of their collar and baulked at the level of charges being suggested in reports.

The failure of Irish Water was not solely because people did not want to pay. There was a failure to win public confidence and secure moral public investment in the utility through a lead-in time of between three and five years. The company also failed to secure the confidence of the most committed supporters of water conservation and metering who envisaged a smart, flexible and responsive system that would genuinely reward efforts at conservation. Instead, everyone who wanted one got a conservation grant for doing nothing.

The previous Government insulted people's intelligence. The Minister spoke recently about the need for education in the context of pay-by-weight bin charges. A university business faculty somewhere must be designing a course on how not to build a commercial state utility using Irish Water as an example. Thanks to the Fianna Fáil Party's willingness to facilitate the formation of a Government, the challenge we face is to move forward and take the necessary steps to correct the mistakes made.

As I said, however, it could have been so different. The previous Government could have embarked on a prolonged education campaign, beginning in primary schools and evolving into post-primary and community education. Instead, schoolchildren protested with their parents at marches and wrote the right to water principle into their 2016 proclamations. The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources could have embarked on a detailed, dynamic communications strategy informing the public over time of the finite nature of the natural resource that is water. The previous Government could have worked in tandem with the State broadcaster and encouraged it to play its part in producing balanced documentaries about the importance of water conservation and international best practice. It could have invested over time in the science of water conservation, encouraging research into water conservation measures. As I pointed out in a previous contribution, the state of Massachusetts in the United States has introduced new building regulations that oblige builders to ensure hot water flows within 12 seconds of the tap being turned on. The previous Government could have used the opportunity to design a smart metering programme that enabled consumers to monitor their water use, thereby empowering them in terms of usage. It could have explored additional water harvesting technology for domestic use and examined further building regulations that could have assisted reduction in domestic water use. The previous Government could have designed an intelligent programme but did not do so and, in its haste, squandered a major opportunity to do something great for at least a generation. Instead, it designed, at mesmerising speed, a model that appeared to envisage Irish Water being fattened up for privatisation. It then promised to punish citizens who would not pay, the majority of whom could not pay.

The previous Government lost its mandate on water charges at the general election. The Fianna Fáil Party made a commitment to the electorate and this Bill is the first step in achieving it. We have outlined a clear pathway for realising this commitment, and the majority of Members of this Dáil will decide on the future of water charges following the report of the expert commission and Oireachtas committee.

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