Dáil debates
Tuesday, 24 May 2016
Priority Questions
Irish Water
4:25 pm
Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
33. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the net cost of the abolition of Irish Water and water charges. [11833/16]
Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
The Government is committed to retaining Irish Water as a single national utility in public ownership responsible for the delivery of water and wastewater services. To build public confidence in Irish Water, I will be establishing an expert advisory body which will advise on measures to improve the transparency and accountability of Irish Water and to give the Oireachtas quarterly reports on its performance in relation to its business plan.
Some broad estimates were prepared in the context of recent Government formation discussions on the potential costs of abolishing Irish Water. It was estimated that one-off costs for staff redundancies, termination of contracts, transitioning to another model and so on could range between €85 million and €169 million. In addition, some €1.6 billion additional running and capital costs would arise over the period of the current Irish Water business plan to 2021 due to the fact that the efficiencies agreed in the context of that plan would be unlikely to be achieved in a return to a local authority model. From memory, the efficiencies planned for in the business plan over that period were €1.1 billion. Irish Water has already cut about 7% off its cost base in the past two years.
Abolishing domestic water charges would lead to an expected additional subvention requirement of up to €1.4 billion over the period 2016 to 2021, subject to assumptions on payment levels and without reflecting any costs of dismantling contracts. In other words, if domestic water charges were fully paid by everybody, that is the income that would have come to Irish Water. We also need to factor in the abolition of the water conservation grant which, over that time period also, could deliver savings of €660 million. That is costing the State about €110 million each year.
The Government has committed to establishing an expert commission to make recommendations for the sustainable long-term funding model for the delivery of domestic water and wastewater services by Irish Water. The commission will report to a special Oireachtas committee and consideration of recommendations on the funding model will ultimately be voted upon by the Oireachtas next year. In the meantime, I will introduce legislation shortly to suspend domestic water charges for a period of nine months, or three billing cycles, from the end of the current billing cycle, which is the end of June.
Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
I thank the Minister. As he knows, in May, Irish Water produced a report, although it did not publish it but selectively leaked aspects of it to a number of newspapers, which estimated that the cost of the abolition of Irish Water would be in the region of €7 billion. I am interested to know if the Minister has seen its report or its figures, which are hugely different from the several billion euro the Minister has outlined here. As the new Minister, does he believe it is appropriate for Irish Water to leak information selectively which, clearly from his Department's figures and those of the Department of Finance, are at great variance? Is that something he believes he, as the new Minister, should discuss with Irish Water to ensure this type of behaviour from it is not repeated?
Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
Irish Water has a responsibility to put information into the public domain if it feels it is relevant. I suspect that is what it was trying to do. I have not read the report the Deputy is referring to but there is a massive opportunity cost in terms of essentially going backwards in terms of the way we deliver water. I will have an opportunity when debating these issues later to outline the reason I believe a single utility is so important for Ireland. The previous approach of having 34 local authorities delivering water services was a disaster in terms of underinvestment and, most important, public health. The real concern of those in Irish Water who understand water systems, in the context of that model and charging being abolished, is the very significant cost to the State, and I believe that is what it was trying to explain.
Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
The Minister's interpretation of Irish Water selectively leaking sections of a document none of us read is more than generous. If it wanted to have informed public debate, it could have published the report and let people form their own view.
The problem for local authorities, until the creation of Irish Water, was not that local authorities were doing a bad job but that central government was not investing, as Deputy Cowen has outlined, in social housing or, if we were discussing health, health services. Central government's refusal to invest in vital public services, particularly those delivered by local authorities, is at the heart of many of those difficulties.
I ask the Minister again if he believes it is appropriate for Irish Water to leak pieces of information selectively to some publications in the media rather than what it should have done in respect of that report, which is give it to the Minister involved, the Members of this House and the public to allow a reasoned and informed debate. In his dealings with Irish Water, will the Minister communicate to it that it is not a good way to proceed if it wants to inform the public debate, as the Minister so suggests?
Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
The Deputy seems to know more than I do about selective leaking in regard to this particular issue. I do not believe we should be selectively leaking anything. The debate we had last week, as a result of selective leaks, also skewed a debate inappropriately. I would be a fan of more transparency and, when reports are put together, of publishing reports in full in order that people can get the context around issues as important as delivering safe public water supplies. We will have an opportunity to go into these issues in some detail in the debate tonight.
Something I hope this House will be able to do over the next nine months, because we will be debating water on many occasions between now and when this House votes on a way forward in terms of funding models, is to try to understand each other's perspectives and rely on informed opinion as reports are produced, particularly from the expert commission we are setting up which, when the Deputy sees its make-up, will see that it will be balanced and made up of credible people.
Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
For the information of the House, each priority question and other question is limited to six minutes - two minutes for the Minister to respond to the question, a one-minute supplementary question, a one-minute supplementary answer, and then concluding remarks from the questioner and from the Minister. If the Members go over time, I am limited as to how much time I can give to other persons who have priority questions and other Members who have questions on the Order Paper. We are now about seven minutes over time on the five questions given priority today, so I ask Members to bear that in mind when approaching questions in the future.