Charles Ward (Donegal, 100% Redress Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this Bill to repeal Part 2 of the Water Services Act 2017 and rule out the reintroduction of water charges by this and future Governments. I fully support the Bill. I am disappointed to hear of the Government's intention to reintroduce water charges despite knowing how strongly the public feels about this. The charge may be for excessive use of water at this stage. However, I believe that once it is introduced the Government will find a way to introduce domestic water charges for every household.

The Government is being completely disingenuous when it cites water conservation as the reason for the introduction of water charges. If this Government was really concerned about water conservation it would address the issues with Uisce Éireann, particularly issues with water infrastructure and leakages. Uisce Éireann is causing real problems for the development of the country, especially in Donegal. Water leakages are a huge issue in Donegal. Many of our pipes are not fit for the pressure and are bursting. Staff are often forced to do emergency repairs at the weekend, which has knock-on effects on costs. Uisce Éireann continually sends out repair reports. What is really needed is a complete infrastructural update.

In Inishowen, the upgrade of the Meendoran to Clonmany trunkmain needs to be fast-tracked. It has burst on many occasions. There have been multiple significant outages affecting hundreds of homes for weeks at a time. We were recently informed that upgrades would proceed. As I said, if the Government truly cared about water conservation, it would have prioritised this and fixed this problem and many others. Millions and millions of length of pipe throughout the country have burst.

As well as this, there are two areas in Malin Head and on the Wild Atlantic Way where the council is not able to repair the roads because Uisce Éireann will not complete the pipe improvement works that are needed in the area. This is completely unacceptable. Shockingly, water is leaving Inishowen to service other parts of the county with Inishowen left airlocked. In a country where it rains almost every day, we should be able to store water in reservoirs built in local areas. Rural areas are very badly serviced when it comes to water. Again, the Government suggesting the introduction of a charge for an extremely poor service is outrageous.

Tens of thousands of people from across the country marched in Dublin to protest against water charges. I was one of them and I will do it again. Almost a decade later, the Government is still trying to find ways to charge people for water during a cost-of-living crisis. People are struggling to get by with ever increasing bills for food and electricity. We must stop and scrap water charges altogether, once and for all.

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