John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That makes an interesting change.

I thank the staff of Irish Water and the local authorities who are working, have been working in the past few days and will be working for the next few days to restore water services, including wastewater treatment, to houses and businesses across the country that have been affected by Storm Ophelia. It is only when major events like this happen that they receive the praise they rightly deserve for the work they carry out.

I thank those who contributed to the debate. I was here much of it. It took place for several days and there were many contributions. I will pick up on some of the issues raised by speakers earlier in the discussion.

On the possible holding of a constitutional referendum to enshrine the water system in public ownership, let me reiterate the Government’s commitment to engage further with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government on the issue. I recognise that some members of the public and some Members of the Oireachtas have genuine concerns about the ownership of public water infrastructure. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services acknowledged these concerns in its report, as did the Government in not opposing Deputy Niall Collins’s Bill when it was brought before the House last November.

The Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government in May to discuss the complexities of the wording of any constitutional amendment. The Department and its three Ministers are working with the Office of the Attorney General on the issues involved. Among the issues to be considered are the challenges of the wording, given the range of categories of infrastructure ownership - private boreholes, private group water schemes, private group water schemes that source water from the public network and water infrastructure located on privately owned land which is quite common throughout the country; achieving a balance between the principles reflected In the Constitution and more detailed policy which should be reflected in legislation; and addressing the risk of unintended consequences, which relates to possible impingement of individuals' rights to private property which are strongly protected in the Constitution. Once we and the Office of the Attorney General have concluded our work on these issues, we will be able to engage further with the Oireachtas joint committee.

Several Deputies referred to the Oireachtas joint committee’s recommended review of investment needs for the rural water sector. I am absolutely committed to holding this review to ensure the group water scheme sector will have a vibrant, sustainable future. The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, assured the National Federation of Group Water Schemes of this when he met it and also at the recent rural water services conference.

The Department has held initial discussions with the sector about the review and I intend progressing this at the earliest opportunity.

Another issue raised was the levy on excessive use of water. The approach being taken is in line with the recommendations of the joint committee. The main point to emphasise is that the excessive usage provisions will apply to all households, not only households that have a meter. As recommended by the joint committee, wasteful water use should be monitored by using district water meters, existing infrastructure, which includes domestic water meters, and modern technologies. It is important to highlight that Irish Water will give customers six months to eliminate excessive usage. In the case of larger households and those where excessive water usage is caused by medical needs, the Bill provides an extra usage allowance for households of five persons or more and makes provision for households where excessive water usage is due to medical needs to apply for an exemption from the levy.

It is vital that we retain the incentive for households to conserve water. Approximately 8% of households, according to 2016 metering data, are consuming more than one third of all water supplied to domestic households. This is an astonishing statistic. This is primarily due to leakage, which is a waste of water all taxpayers will have to fund if we do not directly levy households responsible for this excess. Retaining this dissuasive incentive is critical to conserving this precious resource, reducing leakage and helping us to meet our obligations under the water framework directive.

As the Minister outlined in his opening statement, the objective of the Bill is to give funding certainty and clarity to Irish Water about how we fund domestic water services. There was criticism that the new funding model does not give multi-annual certainty to Irish Water. However, Deputies must recognise that there is an annual budgetary process and all allocations are subject to the annual Estimates process.

The new funding and policy framework will, however, give greater confidence to Irish Water to plan and deliver major projects such as the Cork lower harbour main drainage scheme to end the practice of discharging raw sewage into Cork's inner harbour area or the Stillorgan reservoir and Vartry water supply scheme projects, both of which involve modernisation of infrastructure that is more than 150 years old and each of which serves a population of more than 200,000 people.

Through the production of a national water services policy statement and Irish Water's strategic funding plan and within the context of the economic regulator's approved water charges plan, the Government will be well placed to allocate the appropriate level of funding to Irish Water. This will enable the company to continue to deliver important initiatives to improve water quality, protect water sources, reduce leakage and increase spare capacity, as well as address the major deficit in wastewater treatment capacity which resulted in raw sewage being discharged directly into local waters at 42 urban areas as at the end of last year.

As Deputies will know, one of the key elements of the Bill is for refunds of domestic water charges to be paid to Irish Water customers. This important provision is in line with the recommendations of the joint committee relating to equity and fairness. While the Second Stage debate has taken place over a three-week period, which is perhaps somewhat longer than anticipated, I reassure the House that Irish Water will commence making refunds as soon as the Bill is enacted and the process will be administered as quickly as possible.

On water conservation and its role in the Government's water sector reforms, conservation has always been, and will continue to be, central to water sector reform. It was for this reason that we introduced a metering campaign, Irish Water rolled out a first fix programme which had delivered 89 million litres of water savings per day by the end of last year, and the utility is implementing a leakage reduction programme which will involve more than €500 million in investment in the four years to the end of 2021. Increased water conservation plays an important role in increasing security of supply. The leakage reduction and first fix programmes as well as other initiatives will continue to form part of the conservation agenda.

We need to provide funding clarity and certainty to the water services sector in order that it can deliver a public water system that provides a secure, safe supply to homes, communities, the water intensive industries that sustain approximately 400,000 jobs and the wider economy. We need to provide funding certainty in order that we can address the major deficits in urban wastewater treatment so that public health and the aquatic environment are protected. This is vital to communities' quality of life and the future management of water.

By supporting the Bill, the House will support a strong funding and policy framework for water services and enable us to aspire with confidence to achieving a modern public water and wastewater system fit for a modern society and economy.

See this speech in context