Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this after four months as a member of the committee. During the debate I used my telephone to google the definition of the word "spin" because I was struck by some of the earlier contributions. It is defined as a heavily biased portrayal of an event or situation. There has been much spin in the Chamber tonight, as one probably would expect, from those of different political persuasions. There have been heavily biased portrayals of events in the last four months and of parties' different positions in the last decade or so, with people trying to tell us that their current position is what it always was.

Before the expert commission report and throughout the proceedings of the committee on the future funding of domestic water and wastewater, the Fine Gael position was very clear. I am delighted there is no need for spin on our side. When other parties opposed us on the need for an excess usage levy we made it clear that we simply could not support them. When others said there would not be mandatory metering in new builds, we let it be known that we could not support that. When others talked of penalties and criminalising people for using excessive amounts of water we said that it was okay if people wanted to use excessive amounts of water, but that they should pay for it. If it is far above the average allowance they should make a contribution for that, not expect their neighbour or somebody else to pay for it. One pays according to the excess one uses.

The core issues for us last week were legal concerns. The legal opinions that were returned to the committee vindicated our concerns. Four key Fine Gael principles relating to the future funding of domestic water have been achieved. Meters will go into new builds and apartments will be bulk metered. People who use water excessively will pay for that excess usage. When one considers that 8% of households in this country are using one third of all treated water, which is very expensive to produce, it is right for all of us to wish to see that figure drop. Many of those people do not even realise they are using that amount, due to leakages in the ground. Securing the future of Irish Water as a single utility is another key principle and certainty of funding to sustain our water services into the future is crucial. I believe the results of this report and the work we did are of great benefit to Ireland in terms of the environmental and economic sustainability of the public water system into the future.

At all times Fine Gael has insisted that it could not leave the country open to very significant fines for being in breach of European directives but, as has been said earlier by my colleague and a couple of other contributors, this is also the right thing to do. Supporting the "polluter pays" principle is the right thing to do for our environment. Fine Gael is working towards achieving an outcome that is honest and fair. This report is honest and fair to the people, to the taxpayer and to the Members of this House who will ultimately vote on it tomorrow.

I take the opportunity to acknowledge the role of my Fine Gael colleagues on this committee and thank them. We worked very much as a team. Even beyond the six Members on the committee there was a number of other people who substituted at times when a member could not make it. It really was a team effort. I personally learned a lot from it throughout the process. I would like to acknowledge the chairman, Senator Pádraig Ó Céidigh, and his staff for the unwavering commitment to being an honest broker in a difficult set of circumstances. I also acknowledge the clerks and staff of the committee, the staff of the Department and the Fine Gael staff behind the teams who were always there as a support us when we needed them.

As I say I learned a lot from my time on the committee. One of the key moments, for me, that I will always remember was the visit to Irish Water headquarters. Very few of the committee members went out that day. To see, at first hand, the progress and commitment of the staff and management in Irish Water was really an eye-opener. For all of the bad press they have got, Irish Water replaced far in excess of 800 km of piping, that had been lying in the ground for years needing to be replaced, in three years when local authorities had struggled to do it in decades.

Opposition to Irish Water and talk of reverting to more than 30 local authorities proves that Governments do not get rewarded for strategic and long-term thinking. That is a concern. That is something on which everybody in this House needs to reflect. I acknowledge the role those staff in Irish Water have played, and continue to play, in what have been very difficult circumstances as they try to work to improve our water and waste water infrastructure. I hope the certainty of funding for the utility and the certainty of its future allows those staff to get on with that work without any distractions in order that their focus can be on the 44 pinch-points the length and breadth of the country where raw sewerage or untreated water enters out water schemes.

For me, at the back of my head throughout all of this process were places like Oak Park in Narraghmore in South Kildare and Walshestown Park in Newbridge, where residents who pay big mortgages and who go out to work every day are regularly subjected to raw sewage being thrown on their greens because of the mistakes of developers in the past and because of the difficulties we have in fixing those problems. Everything that drives us in Fine Gael to fix the problems and to secure certainty into the future is with those people in mind. We want make sure we can fix all those problems of the past quickly, and make sure that we do not make the same mistakes in the future.

See this speech in context