Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Aontú is completely opposed to water charges. I was proud to be the chair of the Meath Right2Water campaign that fought alongside men and women across the country to protect families from the worst excesses of water charges ten years ago. It is incredible that the Government is considering revisiting water charges. The Fine Gael and Labour Party Government that previously tried to introduce water charges squandered more than €1 billion trying to implement them. This included €550 million spent on the installation of water meters. It also included the conservation grant of over €94 million. We must not forget the €5 million used to administer refunding the water charges. That Fine Gael-Labour Party Government literally flushed hundreds of millions of euro in taxpayers' money down the drain. This was badly needed investment that should have gone into capital infrastructure.

For a Government to do something so stupid once is shocking, but for another Government to even consider repeating such a mistake is absolutely unforgivable. The major reason I have for being against water charges is simply ability to pay. In the 1780s, economists decided that one of the best ways to introduce a tax was to say that the more you earn, the more you pay. They created the idea of a progressive tax.

Here we are, nearly 250 years later, and Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents in government still do not seem to understand that key element. Water charges are ignorant of people's ability to pay. They are ignorant of family sizes and of disability. A person earning ten times more can pay the same in water charges as someone on a much lower income.

As the Minister will know, Aontú has been running a campaign against excessive Government waste for a number of months and as part of that campaign we have been putting in questions to the OPW. A recent reply we received from the OPW to parliamentary question we tabled stated that there was a nice heated swimming pool in Farmleigh. We asked how many times this swimming pool had been used and, of course, the Minister responsible for the OPW did not know. However, we then found out that Farmleigh only receives two delegations of visitors a year. We know that for 50 weeks a year Farmleigh is empty of its objective purpose, that is, to provide hospitality for delegations. For 50 weeks of the year, this heated swimming pool is not being used by anybody. This is an example of the Government's approach. It is largesse for the political establishment and it is charges and belt-tightening for citizens. It is incredible that the Government has squirrelled away vast sums of money in recent years while there are so many capacity constraints within Irish society. We hear the Government is looking to spend €10 billion piping water from the Parteen basin into Dublin at the moment. Currently, there is a 37% leakage rate from the pipes in Dublin. We are going to spend €10 billion piping water from the Parteen basin to allow 37% of that water just to disappear through leaks. It is absolutely wrong. The Government must desist.

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