Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, in his statement this evening, said we should remind ourselves of the process by which the committee reached this point. That is a good place to start. On Thursday last, the committee had a final draft report and received legal opinion on it, which gave it the green light. In the legal opinion, particularly in section 4, the barrister stated, with reference to incentives and penalties, that these will assist in attempting to persuade the Commission that the purpose and intent of Article 9 has been compiled with. The barrister added, as he had advised previously, that it would be a matter for the drafters of the legislation and the Legislature to ensure any laws passed by Dáil Éireann were in compliance with the directive. Lo and behold, in respect of the exact same document, he came back on Tuesday with a completely different legal opinion, recommending the insertion of three new paragraphs and totally changing the emphasis of the report. In relation to metering, on Thursday last he stated that while there have been some changes made to this section, they do not alter the advices previously furnished. Lo and behold, on Tuesday he came back stating that paragraph 7.5 had been substantially changed and the changes, in his view, caused difficulty. How did he arrive at that point, on the exact same document, with two separate legal advices? He told the committee the only difference was that he got a letter from Fine Gael. That was the only difference between Thursday and Tuesday. It is obvious what happened. He was got to. The advice was changed to facilitate it. It was changed to give the Minister and the Commission everything they wanted. That is what has been arrived at. That is why we ended up having 12 or 13 votes yesterday at the committee, namely, to try to get back to the report, which the Thursday before was legally sound and which all of a sudden was not legally sound, according to the same legal adviser.

The difference was that over the weekend Fianna Fáil marched up the hill and huffed and puffed, and the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, faced it down. It is now Coveney, two, and Cowen, zero. Coveney faced them down. Fianna Fáil backed down, climbed back down the hill again, and came in and voted against everything it had voted in favour of the week before in the draft report, which, based on the legal advice to the committee, was legally sound. That is what happened.

It was interesting that the Minister, in his contribution, indicated he was now merely a messenger for the Commissioner and that the report reflects what the Commission stated it wanted. It is also interesting - we will have to look at this closely when the legislation comes through - that the legislation will merely push it all over to the CER and the CER will do the dirty work on behalf of it. The Commission has stated the charge for excessive or wasteful use of water should be dissuasive. That is more than merely a charge for water. According to the Commission, that is a dissuasive level at which to penalise those who end up in a position where they have used an excessive amount of water.

The completion of metering will be instrumental in this regard. The metering programme will take a bit longer. In metering new builds, by 2030 one will have an additional 300,000 meters installed across the country, which leaves that back door open to the Minister to reintroduce charges. That is the back door that we all will fight against and oppose. Fianna Fáil has stated it has ended the failed water charges regime. It may have ended the previous failed water charges regime but it is introducing a new failed water charges regime.

Fianna Fáil has made much of the fact that the 133 litres per person per day is included in the report but it is significantly weaker than it was in the report we had on Thursday last because section 4.4 states, "The Committee recommends that the CER should determine average consumption levels setting the threshold level at 1.7 times the average household use.", which Fine Gael pursued religiously on Thursday last as being 127 cu. m per year. The section goes on to state, "The legislation should also provide for appropriate allowances for extraordinary circumstances such as medical conditions and above the average household size that falls beyond the threshold allowance and taking [only] into consideration that the average usage per person is 133 litres per person per day." That is significantly weaker than it was in the report on Thursday last. Interestingly, Fianna Fáil withdrew its amendment to allow Deputy Noel Grealish's go forward. Perhaps that was to give it a bit of cover when it blows up in its face.

I say to the Members who spoke in favour of the group water schemes that they should read section 6.2 of the report on group water schemes. I thank the Right2Water Deputies for insisting that the section was inserted into the report.

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