Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

We are here because of a request from the Deputy regarding the need for a referendum on water. We have been told that the Minister, Darragh O'Brien, looks forward to definitively addressing the referendum in the near future. That is great. We are having a debate about the future of water services now. We have had repeated commitments to hold a referendum, yet here we are having a debate about it and there is no commitment. Where is our referendum on water? We have been waiting six years. Six months ago, the Minister promised there would be a referendum this year or early next year. Where is the referendum? We are only a handful of weeks away from the next Dáil recess, when the Dáil will be off for another full month.

Why is the Government continuing to try to push through privatisation through the back door? That is already happening in terms of how Irish Water operates its outsourcing to private companies. Large parts of our water infrastructure are already being run on a for-profit basis. Officially, we are meant to be getting bills for excess usage of water next year. They were originally meant to start in 2019. As a result of the mass opposition, we have managed to delay them but it is clear the Government would like to come back to them. However, just as the threat has not gone away, the opposition of the water charges movement will not go away. That is the position of the vast majority of people in this country and the Government knows it.

The other reason we are here today is the resistance of the water workers. The water workers who are being faced with transferring to Irish Water were also given a promise that, before they transferred, there would be a referendum to ensure Irish Water could not be privatised. They have been sold out on that promise by the Government. The promise has not been kept. We have no wording and no date, so the workers are absolutely correct to fight to protect their terms and conditions and to demand a referendum on public ownership of Irish Water. It is great that a number of unions have come out to launch the Keep Water Public campaign to demand a date for a referendum to enshrine Irish Water in public ownership.

It is important that we discuss the issue of the wording. Six years ago, Deputy Joan Collins brought forward wording that was clear and would ensure there could be no future privatisation of our water services. I sat in multiple committee meetings with her at which the Government came up with this, that and the other reason to oppose it. The Government, however, has refused to come forward with its own wording thus far. When the Taoiseach has been questioned on this in the Dáil, he has been incredibly slippery, using language around the idea of keeping the resources in public ownership and so on in ways that make me think that if the Government is ultimately forced to give a date, whatever wording it comes up with will, in effect, be meaningless. It does not want to have a referendum to enshrine water in public ownership because the clear policy preference, openly declared and so on, of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is ultimately for privatisation of our water. That is what the water charges were about - commodifying our water in order for privatisation down the road.

The water workers are absolutely right to fight their fight, a crucial part of which is to demand a referendum. The public, which fought so heroically and engaged in mass non-payment, with 73% of people refusing to pay, need to keep watch on this issue now. The Government may hope the attention has gone off and that we will just forget about the referendum so it will not have to hold one. That is why public pressure is going to be brought to bear to demand a referendum, demand that we have water fully in public ownership and demand that investment is put in place to ensure we have proper water infrastructure in this country. We still do not have such infrastructure. That is not because we do not have water charges; it is because of the repeated refusal to invest in vital infrastructure. We have the same investment being made as would have been the case if water charges had been brought in.

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