Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I was explaining what I consider to be one of the lessons of the battle against water charges, which is that Fianna Fáil cannot be trusted. I will go into more detail now to illustrate how this Bill, which Deputy Cowen - who sounded more like "Minister" Cowen last night - was at such pains to defend, shows that Fianna Fáil cannot be trusted. At the conclusion of the deliberations of the Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, by means of a backroom deal, managed to stitch in a backdoor to water charges in the future. What the Government, clearly with Fianna Fáil's acquiescence, has done with this Bill is to try to widen the back door already before it even comes into place.

I will deal first with the question of excessive usage, which is a red herring. It was clear from the hearings of the committee that it is a red herring. It was clear from the expert report that it is a red herring because average usage in Ireland is not high, it is low. According to the expert commission, it is 125 l per person per day compared with 140 l per person per day in Britain where there are water charges. We do not have widespread excessive usage of water and where it exists, it is overwhelmingly due to the fact that there are leaks. The leaks should be fixed; not only should a first fix be free but any leaks that are there should be fixed. It is clearly only there as a backdoor for returning to water charges in the future.

The general point we made in the aftermath of the committee and its report has been confirmed in dramatic terms by the Government's Bill. Why else include a provision in section 9 to reduce the threshold of 1.7 times the average usage above which one will pay? There is no other explanation but that the Government and Fianna Fáil, looking at being in government in future, wants at least the possibility of, over time, reducing the threshold and thereby increasing the number of people who would be brought into the charging net. Anticipating that argument, Deputy Cowen said it needs a majority of the Dáil and asked what we were complaining about because it is a democratic process. Relying on the fact there will not be a majority in the Dáil that is really in favour of water charges is again asking people who mobilised against water charges to trust that Fianna Fáil is not for water charges. We have the experience of Fianna Fáil being for water charges and originally signing the country up for water charges. It is incredible and the only reason it is there is to use it as a backdoor for water charges in the future.

The point was made by Deputy Cowen that the only people who will be paying water charges will be water wasters. That is not true because of the way the household average is being worked out. It is not being worked out on the basis of the number of individuals in a house and the amount of water each individual is likely to use based on an average and multiplying it by 1.7; it is simply doing it up to four people in a house on the basis of one average. A one-person household will have exactly the same allowance as a four-person household. In a society where average occupancy in households is increasing because of a crisis which has led to many children being unable to leave home until they are in their 30s, an increasing number of households are made up of four adults. There is an average household size of 2.75 but if there are four adults in a house and they use even slightly more than average - they are not water wasters - they will face charges from July 2019. That is what Fianna Fáil and the Government have signed people up for. It was something explicitly discussed in the committee when talking about individual usage. An individual usage figure was something Fianna Fáil argued for but here we have an overall household figure. I did the sums on it. If we say that the average is 133 l per person, the average household allowance will be 622 l for a household. However, four adults using an average amount each will use almost 540 l between them. It only requires them to use less than 20% extra water per person to face charges. It is not the 70% extra the Government and Fianna Fáil suggest.

I have a question. I agree with Deputy Jan O'Sullivan. The timeframe for this is very suspicious and the fact it will not come in until July 2019 shows the reality. The Government has the figures for consumption. It could introduce this tomorrow. It does not want to do so because it knows water charges are politically toxic. In July 2019, they will still be politically toxic, there will still be mass opposition and there will still be 40% of homes not metered. In those circumstances, I have a question as to whether the Government will seriously go for this in another year and a half. If the Government and Fianna Fáil do, they should have no fear, they will be beaten again by a movement that has experienced the fact that it can win. That movement will beat the Government again by using the same tactics and strategies it employed previously.

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