Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

An awful lot of people, certainly in my constituency and rural areas, find it very difficult to deal with Uisce Éireann. We cannot get through to it. Nobody can get talking to it. People cannot get any reply to their queries and issues. Most of the water in many parts of the country is provided by group schemes. If the group schemes agree to be taken over, then Uisce Éireann will engage with them but it will only engage with them or take them over provided they are up to a certain standard. They cannot get up to that standard unless they get assistance to improve the pipe system but Uisce Éireann will not process their applications for grants. I am not the only TD in the House with this issue. I have spoken to TDs on the Minister's benches who tell me they have the very same problems everywhere.

The truth is that Uisce Éireann as a concept has been a total disaster. We said this from the beginning. When the local authorities were dealing with this issue, they had people on the ground who knew what was happening and were able to deal with it, and they did so effectively and efficiently. There needs to be a sense of realism here.

Uisce Éireann has failed utterly and any introduction of water charges on top of that would be a further compounding of that failure.

One of the things Uisce Éireann charges for is a connection. Here is an example. My understanding is that a connection fee for water is €2,200 or thereabouts. However, if the distance is more than 10 m, Uisce Éireann charges €358 per metre, so to put in a connection the distance from me to the Minister would cost approximately €3,500 extra. What the company is saying to people is that if they are not on the line, they will not get water because they will be priced out of it. That is totally unfair, particularly for people who live in rural areas where houses are often a bit more dispersed. There needs to be recognition that if people are to be provided a people, it has to be affordable and practical. To do what Uisce Éireann is doing to people is totally outrageous. That is the problem we have with Uisce Éireann. It continually puts obstacles in people's way so they cannot get the service they deserve and want. When they do get it, in many areas the water they get is not to the quality it should be. That is an issue. We know there are several places around the country where we have these issues. There have been boil water notices in place for years. We also have major wastewater problems in our towns. In several towns in my constituency there are opportunities to build more houses. Developers want to build them and the local authorities are talking about zoning land, but the problem is that the water system is not up to scratch, and nor is the wastewater service.

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