Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Níl raibh sé i gceist agam labhairt faoi seo anocht so níl mé go hiomlán ullamh. Bhí sé i gceist agam labhairt amárach. Bhí mé ag iarraidh cinntiú go mbeadh an deis agam mo ladar a chur isteach sa scéal seo. Níor labhair mé chomh minic agus ba chóir dom faoi táillí uisce. Thar na 15 bliana a raibh mé sa Teach bhí mé gafa leis na feachtais agus le bheith istigh anseo ag cur i gcoinne reachtaíocht ar taillí uisce. Le bliain anuas níl an oiread sin ráite agam mar measaim gur léir don domhan ar fad an phraiseach a rinneadh nuair a bunaíodh Uisce Éireann nó Irish Water. Táim fós ag déileáil leis sin agus is sampla de an reachtaíocht seo. Is trua go bhfuil an reachtaíocht seo ag déileáil le haisíocaíochtaí ar thaobh amháin agus, ar an taobh eile, go bhfuil sé ag iarraidh réimeas nua a thabhairt isteach a bheadh in ann táillí a ghearradh ar siúd atá, dar leis, ag úsáid an iomarca uisce. Is é sin an bunfadhb a bhí leis na táillí faoi réimeas Uisce Éireann sa chéad dul síos. Luafaidh mé a lán eile faoi nuair atá mé ag tabhairt faoi seo. Ag deireadh thiar thall, tá praiseach á déanamh arís.

They are making another mess. Legislation that seeks to repay charges forced upon society should be welcome but what has happened? As usual, where there is an opportunity, the Government and bureaucrats have slipped in a negative element. That element in this case is exactly what the committee debated back and forth. Anybody involved with the committee dealing with this matter saw how parties took up totally different positions until the vote came about. While people were voting, they were changing their mind. Some members did not even know what way to vote. In many ways, this is like every attempt made to introduce water charges, whether it was in the 1980s or 1990s in different councils. They made a mess of it and they have done it again in this instance. That is why I will oppose this legislation.

I am mindful there are charges for excessive use in this legislation but how can we define excessive use? Anybody who read the transcripts of the committee, sat through the meetings or engaged, as I did towards the end when I substituted for Deputy Ó Broin, one of our representatives, could see there was advice flying left, right and centre from the legal adviser on excessive use. The adviser argued this area could not be regulated but other legal advice appeared in the middle or the meeting, as the vote happened, so people changed their mind.

Ultimately, the regime has collapsed and Irish Water has been disgraced. We need to ensure now that proper funding for local authorities can be put in place. There must be proper funding to tackle the years or even decades of underinvestment in the pipes in this city and throughout the country. The problem with raw and treated sewage, including the scale expected to be treated by plants, must also be addressed. There will be a cost to the Exchequer regardless of whether we like it. There is a public health element and the Government should over the years have gone to Europe to ask for special funding to address our legacy. We had wooden or lead pipes, at least in this city. Anybody who lived in council houses, as I did, would remember the lead pipes that went under the stairs and swelled until they popped or cracked. A person might have had to fix those pipes at his or her own cost, whether it happened inside the house or outside. The pipes might have been split between two houses in most council houses in this city. The problem might have been in somebody else's property but it would have been shared with the neighbour.

There is also the matter of asbestos pipes. Even to this day, I cannot fathom why we have asbestos pipes that everybody knew about. We are told they are safe but they are only safe until they break. What happened in Louth only recently? The pipe broke and there was no talk of quickly replacing the full length of pipe. They tried to fix it and they made a mess of that as well. That was Irish Water. Deputy Munster was informed that the council in Louth was offered help from Dublin City Council, which has expertise in the area, but it was rejected. Irish Water denied that help was offered. People dealing with such matters day in and day out had the spare parts sitting in a depot in the city. They could have addressed the problem so people would not have been without water for a full week. If one is offered expertise, one usually takes it. It is suspected that Irish Water did not take the offer because it did not want to expose the fact that local authority workers in water works had the expertise and were knowledgeable. It would have shown up Irish Water. Instead, they went through the process of ordering special fittings from Belfast, saying how great they were to engineer the pieces over the weekend. Meanwhile, the parts were and still are sitting in a depot in this city. There were other leaks of a similar scale afterwards in Meath.

It has even been addressed in this city. In my own area of Bluebell there was a major fault, and a long time was spent dealing with it, but in comparison with what happened in Louth, it was quite quick. There are residual problems, because in the city there are lead pipes. When the pressure drops and goes up again, the lead expands and drops much quicker than in the asbestos pipes.

My colleagues, among others, mentioned the group water schemes. I admit I know absolutely nothing about them other than they exist. I have read the rural water newsletter, which comes in infrequently nowadays, to try to educate myself. I understand a little about them from friends of mine who have wells on their land in order that they can have some type of water. I have always thought that it was strange. Why should any citizen in this day and age have to drive a well into their ground to get clean water? Why are they not supplied with clean water by the State, with sewerage services at the other end? That is the job of the State. It has always been my opinion that the State should pay for the subsidy or the cost of group water schemes and that it should never have been a burden on rural dwellers.

The biggest problem over the years has been that the councils have been starved of funds which they could have used to replace antiquated systems. Nobody is saying that we should keep the system as it is. I have been in this Chamber for 15 years and have been asking every single Minister in charge of the environment when the Vartry tunnel is going to be fixed. It was only decided last year that it should be replaced. The Vartry tunnel supplies a third of the water to this city and has been in a state of collapse for the past 25 years. Luckily, the decision has been taken to fix it. It is not fixed yet, and if it collapses, one can imagine the chaos we would have. It would be comparable to what happened in Louth except that it would last for two years rather than two weeks.

There is immediate need for huge investment. Even given the restrictions on funding that the EU has placed upon us, I believe that Ireland should go to the EU and make the special case to fix the lead water pipes in this city and to fix the major asbestos pipes outside the city. They need to be replaced immediately on public health grounds.

In terms of wastage, this whole episode of Irish Water reminds me of the electronic voting machines episode. It has been an absolute waste, and we have nothing to show for it other than the fact the public has been awoken and has seen the political parties of the right for what they are. It is clear that their intention all along was privatisation. Some will insist that it was not and that there was an intention to retain public ownership and a willingness to support constitutional change. Look back to when Fianna Fáil was in Government with the Progressive Democrats. The agenda that was implemented then and by every political party that has been in Government since then has been continually to pursue the privatisation of public services and to undermine public services. This debacle is part of that. I for one do not believe it is at an end. I believe that this is going to come back to haunt us, because there will be other attempts to try to bypass this legislation or other legislation, or at least to reintroduce water charges in a different format.

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