Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the Thirty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Water in Public Ownership) (No. 2) Bill 2016. In 2014 I brought forward the Thirty-fourth amendment of the Constitution Bill, the intention of which was similar to that of this Bill. At the time I asked that a referendum be held on the issue on the same day as the same-sex marriage referendum. The provision of an additional ballot paper on that day would have copperfastened the ownership water services as a public asset.

The biggest concern people have is that water services will be privatised. We all remember what happened to Telecom Eireann, now eir, in the 1980s. It was fattened, modernised with taxpayers' money and sold off by the Government to vulture capitalists. The rest is history. We lost control of that service and do not want the same to happen to Irish Water. Two years ago, when I tried to have my Bill introduced and passed through this House, the then deputy leader of the Labour Party and Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, told me that it was not needed and that the legislation in place would not be changed because none of the other parties in the Dáil at the time wanted that to happen. From what has happened in the United States, we know that things can change overnight. Insertion of a clause into the Constitution is the only way to guarantee water services will not be privatised. We do not want to see happen here what is happening in Detroit with water services or in parts of Britain where private companies are charging poor households sky-rocketing prices for water. The Bill is a step in the right direction.

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