Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My constituency of Dublin Fingal West has seen fairly rapid growth in recent years but we have not seen a consequent increase in the capacity of water infrastructure. One example is the village of Naul. The local community are worn out begging - I genuinely mean begging - for assistance from the council, the Government and Irish Water. The Delvin river floods when the water infrastructure is overwhelmed, and it is very regularly overwhelmed. The plant cannot cope with the demand and the community is left to deal with the consequences. Uisce Éireann is a creation of the Minister of State's Government, a creation that it dreamt up. It was designed to facilitate privatisation, and we know that.

4 o’clock

I welcome the acknowledgement by the Labour Party that it was wrong on water charges. I can only imagine its former leader, Deputy Kelly, is somewhat mortified today as his colleagues walk back all his hubris-ridden statements in defence of Irish Water and water charges.

I remember the water marches well. I was an official in SIPTU at the time and I marched with SIPTU members who were ashamed of the union's stance. How could you blame them? Many of them were water workers. I stood alongside them. They are the people we need to see working to ensure safe, clean water is delivered, but somehow the Government has managed to make a job in Irish Water deeply unattractive. It is not sufficiently attractive for people to move from the local authorities into Irish Water. The Minister of State should be under no illusions - the Government needs these men and women and their expertise.

I have been in the Chamber for about half an hour and I have heard Deputy after Deputy raise issues with the inadequacy and the inadequate response of Uisce Éireann or Irish Water. By the way, the Government is fooling nobody with the name change, but the very best of luck with it. What Deputies are saying is Irish Water or Uisce Éireann, or whatever you are having yourself, is not capable of responding to the needs of their community. We have a situation where workers are choosing to remain in the local authority because it is not sufficiently attractive for them to move to Irish Water or Uisce Éireann. I urge the Minister of State to intervene in this situation to ensure workers want to move because he needs those workers and we need them. I could paper the inside of this Chamber with representations sent to Irish Water. We need that expertise. I encourage the Minister of State to intervene directly and ensure it is sufficiently attractive for workers to move from the local authorities to Irish Water.

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