Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Three years ago the Right2Water movement hit the streets. It was a mass movement of communities, trade unions and political parties. It was a reaction to the austerity assault of Fine Gael and the Labour Party. It was about much more than water, but at its heart it was always about water. Just like housing and health, decades of under-investment left people with a crumbling public service. Almost half of all treated water was being wasted by the State. Raw sewage was being pumped into our seas and rivers. Rather than invest in fixing the system, the Ministers at the time, former Deputy Phil Hogan and then Deputy Alan Kelly, had better ideas. This was to commodify water, turning it into a produce that could be bought and sold, and to financialise water services by taking them off the books and running them like a corporation that was buried in debt. Just as night follows day, the next move was always going to be privatisation. We were told that people would get the water service they deserved. This was a shortcut for delivering where past governments had failed. The truth, of course, was very different. All that people would get would be meters, bills, water poverty and the guarantee of rising prices in the future. Three years of hard campaigning had hundreds of thousands of people marching, boycotting and voting. The sheer strength of the campaign forced Fianna Fáil, the party that introduced water charges, to change its position. That party's election manifesto in 2016 had clear commitments to abolish the water charges and, I remind Deputy Barry Cowen, to abolish Irish Water.

We all know that a majority of Deputies elected to this Dáil gave clear commitments to abolish water charges and the utility. When it came to the deal, however, to put the Taoiseach back into government, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil could not agree on the water issue. They bought some time with an expert commission and a water committee, and here we are today with the end product of the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney’s unwanted and utterly unnecessary process.

The Right2Water movement can rightly be proud of the impact we have had on the water debate. The Frankenstein water charge regime of former Ministers Phil Hogan and Deputy Alan Kelly is dead. This is probably the only matter on which I agree with Deputy Barry Cowen. The principle that domestic water services should be funded through general taxation and Government investment has been accepted, with Denis O’Brien’s metering programme stopped in its tracks. People who were bullied into paying water charges will get refunds and people in group water schemes will finally be treated equally. Crucially, a referendum enshrining the public ownership of water and water services has been promised. This is the only way to ensure that water services will not be privatised in the future. I look forward to the Minister's support for the Bill brought forward by Deputy Joan Collins, which calls for a referendum on water ownership and which is currently with the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, as well as a commitment to legislate to reform the Water Services Act 2007.

None of this would have happened without the broad Right2Water movement. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael would have blindly dragged us down the road of commodification, financialisation and eventually privatisation. They have not got their way. The Right2Water movement is not finished yet and the final report agreed by the committee falls far short of what the majority of people want. Irish Water remains in place and thanks to Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, we were not even allowed to discuss in the committee whether it was the best entity for delivering water services. Mandatory metering in new builds and refurbishments is there and will continue, but contrary to what Deputy Barry Cowen said, a back door has been left open for universal metered water charges in the future through the so-called excessive use charges.

Last week, things looked very different. For once it seemed that Fianna Fáil was going to keep its election promise on water charges. Fianna Fáil joined with the five Right2Water Deputies and two Independents in closing any back door to water charges and by opposing mandatory metering. Then, however, the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, issued a last minute diktat at 11 p.m. last Friday.

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