Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I strongly support Deputy Catherine Murphy's amendment. When we see how toxic Irish Water has become, to my mind, it has been a huge waste of money. Advertising expenditure totals €2.85 million to date, with €717,000 going to RTÉ alone. A total of €574 million was spent on water metering, although it is a fact that only €473 million was spent and the other money is being put back into other aspects of Irish Water. Maintaining the meters was potentially going to cost €54 million a year.

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Some €70 million was spent on consultants and €25 million per year was spent on billing. This was all a significant waste of money.

I met some Irish Water workers who told me of how when there was a maintenance problem with certain parts of the water structure, Irish Water contacted a company that would have charged €25 per hour. Suddenly, that arrangement changed and the work was given to a better known company, which demanded €139 per hour but got the company that had been charging €25 to do the work anyway. The better known company was making money on the project in that way. We know of consultants who have got €80,000 to bring in engineers only to pay those engineers €65,000 or €70,000. Much is happening with money that should be going straight into fixing our water pipes and addressing the issues at treatment plants. A check like the one in this amendment is important, as it would look into these matters, ensure that money was spent where it should be and highlight issues like the ones raised with me by those Irish Water workers.

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