Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will respond to amendments Nos. 7 and 9 together as they concern the referendum on the public ownership of water infrastructure. Before I do, I will address some of the points raised by the Deputies in terms of the referendum.

I share the concerns of Deputy Mattie McGrath in terms of the Shannon project but that is not being addressed here today. From an ecological perspective, I would have concerns about it. In terms of Government support for the referendum, it is absolute. My own party's support for a water referendum is absolute as well.

Concerns have been raised around local authority staff and other issues. I pay tribute, as I did earlier, to the federation of group water schemes. I thank Deputies Ó Broin, Gould and Cian O'Callaghan for their proposed amendments which require that the Minister report on the proposed wording for a referendum on the public ownership of water infrastructure, the timeline for the referendum and other key considerations.

Amendment No. 7 proposes that the Minister lays a report before the Oireachtas committee within two months of the passing of the Act. Amendment No. 9 gives the Minister one month to lay the report.

On Committee Stage, Deputy Cian O'Callaghan proposed a similar amendment which gave the Minister six months after the passing of the Act to provide the report on the wording and the timeline of such a referendum. This amendment was rejected by the Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Unfortunately, I cannot accept these two amendments as they do not come within the scope of this Bill. As the Deputies will be aware, this is a technical Bill to separate Uisce Éireann from its parent company, Ervia. I can, however, advise Deputies that the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, expects to be a position to bring forward definitive proposals on a referendum on water ownership for consideration by Government in the near future.

The Government's vision for a world-class public water system in Ireland based on the full integration of water services in a national water services authority is set out in the policy paper on water sector transformation published in February 2021. Public ownership is central to the vision and is already legally guaranteed. No change to State ownership of Irish Water is currently possible without majority support in a plebiscite of the people in line with the Water Services Act 2014.

In the context of engagement at the Workplace Relations Commission on a framework for the future delivery of water services, the Department hosted parallel engagement with unions on policy matters of relevance to workers, including a referendum on water ownership. A paper, entitled Irish Water Transformation: The Wider Policy Context, was shared with unions on 18 July 2022. This paper reflects the engagement outcomes and is available to Members in the Oireachtas Library. This paper sets out the planned approach to bring forward a referendum proposal on water ownership for consideration by Government in conjunction with the anticipated recommendation of a proposed referendum on housing from the housing commission.

We cannot be clearer that the commitment is there. It is there in writing in the Irish Water Transformation policy document. It is there from Government. We are giving that commitment that a referendum will take place on water and housing.

On the concerns raised by Deputy Cian O'Callaghan around what happened in other countries on structural adjustment programmes, that is not the case here. Even as it is, there is no possibility of changing the State ownership of Irish Water without a plebiscite.

I give those assurances to Members.

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