Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

However, the European Commission should also realise that the construct of water charges and Irish Water never achieved democratic legitimacy in this country. It never achieved the support of the people. I hope other events in the past 72 hours will force the Commission to consider how it is doing its job of implementing the ideals of the European Union to which we all subscribe. In terms of representing and reflecting the opinion of people, it must engage with people's concerns and people have serious concerns about water and water charges in this country. While I accept we have different legal opinions, politically the European Commission needs to put this one on its radar.

I wish to bring to the Minister's attention a number of issues in the construct of the Bill. Speaking as a rural Deputy, primary among them is the future role of group water schemes in delivering water services. For the most part, group water schemes are accepted as an essential part of water infrastructure. The members and clients of group water schemes have no difficulty in paying for the service. The majority of them are open to the community or part of the community. All this shows how different the construct of Irish Water could have been.

It is very important that somebody from the National Federation of Group Water Schemes should sit on the commission to bring that experience to bear and bring the views of those who will continue to pay water charges to that table. It is a very Irish way to deliver water through the group water scheme network. Many communities, if they had depended on a State organisation to deliver water, would still be waiting for water, but community-led activity with support from the Department through subsidies ensured they got water.

I have always said we should consider the group water scheme model of delivery in other areas, for instance, broadband, to get services into those areas where central government puts it to the end of the queue or where private companies never bother. It is essential that the voice of group water schemes and their users are represented on the commission and that their views are listened to and not just ticked off.

I welcome the commitment that the capitation that was reduced in line with the €100 grant will be increased. We put huge pressures and demands on group water schemes, which is as it should be for delivering an essential service. It is important that it be delivered properly and healthily. We also need to give them support in doing that. During the years there has been a very good relationship between the former Department, the federation and the various schemes and it is important that continues.

There is a commitment in the programme for Government to continue the subsidies that were provided under the CLÁR programme for bringing water into the most remote areas of the country that can still not get it. It is important that this commitment is fulfilled. There are still areas which do not have huge populations but where there are young families who may be the basis of renewing a community and they need to have water. Without the old CLÁR programme they will not get it.

In that vein, I have noticed a trend in the few planning applications we have seen in recent times, which thankfully are beginning to increase, whereby the water connection fee being charged by Irish Water and local authorities is extraordinary and bordering on extortionate. If we want to encourage families back into rural communities, we need to assist them and not penalise them with development levies and then with a separate water connection fee. In one case a family with two young babies trying to build a house in a rural community are being charged €2,400 just to connect their house, which is not that far away. We need to look at that in an holistic way.

Perhaps the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, working with the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, can look at the way water connection fees are constructed. I accept that they have to be charged, but they should be charged in a way that encourages people and does not penalise them for wanting to move into a rural area.

I want to give credit to the people who work for Irish Water for the central role they have successfully played in the important task of planning. We have identified that it is important for a water utility to have an overarching role as we move forward. Notwithstanding my criticism of Irish Water - I can only speak for the staff in the west region - I have always acknowledged that its team did this very well. We did not need such a large institution to be created in such a gold-plated manner, but that is what happened under the watch of the Minister's predecessor. We needed something much smaller with the ability to react in a speedy manner. We needed a body that could work with the local authority staff who knew the connections on the ground. That is something Irish Water has done well.

The notion that there will be a collapse in the amount of money we are spending on water infrastructure does not add up. If Deputies compare the amount of money spent in recent years with the amount provided directly for councils during Fianna Fáil's time in government, they will find that we were spending more on capital infrastructure than Irish Water has been spending. While I accept that moneys will be better spent by a national co-ordinating body, I do not agree that we need the big, gold-plated, larger-than-life operation that Irish Water has been up to now. I know the word "humility" is not in the dictionary or the pattern of behaviour of the Minister's immediate predecessor. In the Minister's approach to the new commission in the next nine months, he must acknowledge what was done wrong. He must acknowledge the occasions on which legislation and regulations were rushed through the Chamber in a band-aid style manner in the hope that the legitimacy that had flowed away from Irish Water from its establishment would somehow return. That could not be rectified, which is why we are here now. I do not think the legitimacy of water charges will ever be won back because of the disaster that was Irish Water. We should now recreate a water delivery mechanism that will achieve the support of people, work on a national basis in conjunction with the regional plans and the local authorities and meet the water infrastructure needs of a 21st century country. That must be done in a manner that will instil confidence from the outset.

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