Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very disappointed with the Minister's response. It was termed glib and another word was used. It certainly was. I listened to it carefully in my office.

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this Bill. It is being proposed that we repeal Part 2 of the 2017 Act. I read the Second Stage speech made by then Minister, Eoghan Murphy. It was to undo the charges brought in under a previous Act in 2013, but unfortunately, Part 2 was left in this, which gives complete openness in terms of introducing charges.

I am glad the Minister is shaking his head. If we are so wrong on this side, I will be the first to say it. I wish I could believe the Minister, but we have seen what is going to happen in relation to the triple lock. We have seen solemn promises and declarations, and it is very difficult to have trust. If I as a politician do not have trust, it is very difficult for me to instil trust in people on the ground. I will go, therefore, with Sinn Féin's proposal regarding repealing Part 2 of the relevant legislation because it leaves it wide open. More generally, we cannot deal with water other than as a basic human right. Housing is the same, by the way. I pay tribute to former Deputy Joan Collins. She did tremendous work in respect of water as a human right, including tabling a Bill to enshrine water as a basic human right in our Constitution. Unfortunately, it has not happened. I wish it were the case.

We are here now and instead of dealing with how best to conserve water and bring people on board, we are looking at this situation. In my experience, we led the way in Galway on recycling. I often get bored here listening to references to reduce, reuse and recycle. We were doing that for 24 years in Galway. Questions were asked about where the rubbish was going, but, theoretically, we had a brilliant service. It was then privatised and absolutely destroyed. My problem is we are looking on people as the problem. People want to do something about climate change and water conservation. The duplicity of successive Governments, however, makes it very difficult to support them.

To go back to water, I spent 17 years at the local council level and somewhere between 40% and 50% of water was utterly wasted running into the ground. I do not need to exaggerate. No resources were given to the experts on the ground who knew exactly where all the water leakages were. Instead, Uisce Éireann was set up so it could be used and abused when it suited the Government, rather than leaving it with the local authorities and resourcing them. That did not happen, so we are back here again. Rather than dealing in a positive way with the issue of how to bring everybody on board with water conservation, we are holding off the tide of mistrust. Quite clearly, Part 2 of the legislation allows the Government to bring in these charges, albeit in the guise of levies, thresholds and so on. People with medical problems, then, are reduced to appealing to Uisce Éireann. I do not do business that way. Water is a basic human right.

See this speech in context