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

He was, when he could not get what he wanted from Fine Gael, although now he is conceding to its central point at the start of that row.

With regard to an allowance for households of five or more, where does that leave the four-person household, which is particularly disadvantaged under this proposal? It also creates perverse incentives for the one-person household which, if I read the legislation right, will have the same allowance as two-, three- and four-person households. It is not clear whether this charge will only apply to the 8% of households Deputy Cowen spoke about or a large percentage, which was Fine Gael's argument throughout the course of the committee. Deputy Cowen is right. The multiplier can only be reduced by this House, but it can only be reduced. For example, under the legislation this House is denied the opportunity to raise that multiplier if it so wished, so it is not the great saving grace Deputy Cowen believes.

We are also not clear whether this is a fine or a charge. My understanding of the legislation is that if there is excess usage there will be a metric charge depending on how much one is using. That means it is not a fine. It is a charge per unit of water used over a certain amount.

That leads to another problem. What about all those households that do not have meters because not only has the metering programme stopped but Irish Water has reprofiled the €140 million of unspent money from phases 1 and 2 of the metering programme, sensibly in my view, into the overall capital budget. If we pass this legislation, we could have two households on the one street - one with a meter and one without - both using, according to this legislation, excessive amounts and one is hit with a charge and the other is not. That is a recipe for legal action against the State and Irish Water if ever I heard one.

I also have concerns around the medical exemption because it is not clear how it will operate. That is one of the things a committee would rightfully properly interrogate and I doubt it will have the opportunity to do that. Crucially, we started off in a discussion with Fianna Fáil in the committee on the future of water services around how to assist families to reduce leaks because nobody knows whether the idea that 8% of households are using 30% of water is because of excessive leaks in the piping system, excessive use, willful use, large family size, etc. There is no additional support post the first fix facility to assist those families, so let us say this legislation goes through because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael support it. Let us say my grandmother, for example, has a so-called excessive use. Let us say that is identified and there is a very significant capital cost required to fix that, and she has already had the first fix fee to fix something else on the property. Who will fix it for her? Instead of providing the assistance, which many of us discussed at the committee and thought was a good idea, we are going to hit her with a charge.

There are so many holes in this legislation that I have to say it is not comprehensive. It will not settle this matter once and for all and I believe people who support it will have to do an awful lot of explaining because those groups of people who will be particularly disadvantaged - families of four, people with leaks they cannot afford to fix and people with meters on the same street or neighbourhood as those without - will want to know.

My last point is that the water charges regime as introduced by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is not dead. It has been badly damaged thanks to the hard-working campaign in which many of us were involved, but it is in retreat. One could almost say it is in hibernation. It may only affect 4%, 6%, 8% or 10% of households but that is today. If we allow this legislation to pass, the infrastructure for domestic metered water charges, with all of the negative consequences that come with that, remains in place and a future Government, which may even be after the next election - a fine coalition of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael - can come back and do exactly what it wants, which is to extend that charge out to ever-increasing numbers of people, commodify a valuable service that is water and revert to the bad model of water services delivery that is becoming the norm across the world. The consequences of that is that there will be water poverty, increased charges and poorer quality services, particularly for those in need. For those reasons, not only will Sinn Féin be absolutely opposing this legislation but we will be doing as much as we can to ensure that those problems with this Bill are fully exposed in committee so that when they start to hit people in the streets, they will know to blame Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

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