Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

An old man once said to me that a bad law was an unjust law. The setting up of Irish Water privatised water services installation, shut down small companies and destroyed work within the local authorities. Irish Water held businesses and local authorities to ransom and forced county councils to give data for residents on the housing list, which was another breach of data protection legislation which was just dismissed by Irish Water. It was, therefore, an absolute debacle. One of the stipulations of the rules and regulations was that where Irish Water did excavate, it would put things back in the way it had found them, but that never happened. It was shambolic, diabolical and a disgrace. Irish Water terrified people. A development plan in my county, an issue I raised in County Hall, was scuppered. Irish Water refused to provide services. It was farcical. Irish Water has been telling county councils where they can and cannot develop houses or businesses because it was up to it to decide where water services would be provided.

I again commend everybody who stood up and resisted the charges. I visited many family homes where families felt terrified and had been forced to have a meter put outside their door. It was shambolic. We certainly need a referendum to enshrine Irish Water in public ownership. We all spoke about the back door. It should be a safety system in the event of a fire, not a system to introduce charges through the back door.

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