Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As a Deputy who represents a rural constituency, I, too, would like to talk about people power, the positives it can produce and how people in communities can work together. Much has been said and written about the water charges issue, how we deal with it; the cost and leaks. Anybody and everybody can now claim to be an expert on water services. Through the whole debate, however, the real experts have been forgotten about. They are the people who, through people power, generated what we now know as the group water schemes. These experts are the volunteers up and down the country who, when there was very little else going on, took on the task of creating the schemes and providing water for houses where there was no water supply before. This is not something that happened years ago. I did not have piped water in my house up until about ten years ago when the group water scheme provided it for me. Up until then I had to pay for it; I had to sink a tank in the ground and pay the costs. Thankfully, the group water scheme took me on and provided me with a water connection.

The people concerned have spent many years working day and night developing and putting the schemes together. They have given of their time freely and offered leadership in communities, in providing potable water for their neighbours up and down the country. When Deputies talk about the hundreds of thousands who went out to protest, I can talk about the hundreds and thousands who worked together to generate the means through which they could obtain water. They got up on their feet and did something for themselves - they got up and made sure they could deliver for themselves. They brought their communities together in taking on the responsibility to provide water. The members of these schemes got involved, in turn, and became the owners. Believe it or not, they actually paid for the privilege of having a water supply and were delighted to be able to do so for the simple reason that they had never had water piped to their houses before then.

We have now decided that people should not pay for water, unless they use it excessively, a decision that has been made to give people with access to public water supplies free water. As we do this, however, we cannot just leave those in group water schemes to one side and forget about them. We have to treat everybody in the country equally. We have to have equality in the provision of services and the way we pay for them. My constituency of Galway East is full of group water schemes: up and down back lanes; with ten, 16, 150 and hundreds in a scheme. That is how water is supplied in most of rural Ireland. What are we going to do about these schemes? First, we need to fully recognise the fact that the people concerned have paid for water for a long time. We also have to give recognition to the people who set up these schemes, some of whom are no longer with us, although their legacy lives on. We cannot treat them any differently from the rest of citizens. They have to be treated equally. If water is to be paid for out of general taxation, this principle must apply to all.

Group water schemes have taken on many additional challenges since they were first brought forward. Their officers, chairpersons, secretaries and treasurers have taken on additional regulations, standards and responsibilities. I express my sincere thanks to everyone involved in every group water scheme in the country who has worked so hard and free of charge to improve people's lives. The Minister has indicated that he fully understands the group water scheme issue. I look forward to seeing his proposals to ensure we will treat people equally.

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