Results 241-260 of 13,185 for speaker:Pat Gallagher

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (16 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: The provision in section 42(5) is based on section 8(7) of the Local Government Sanitary Services Act 1962, which is being repealed and consolidated into this Bill. Subsection (5) enables a person who has been directed to connect his or her premises to a waterworks or waste water works to appeal that direction to the Circuit Court. The intention behind providing that no further appeal is...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: Amendment No. 75 replaces the existing section 43 with an expanded version incorporating drains and distribution systems in addition to service connections and also providing for taking in charge such connections. It arises in the light of the revised definitions of "drain", "distribution system" and "service connection" in section 2. The purpose of expanding the scope of the existing...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: Senator Bannon is correct in his observation that the original wording of subsection (3), while providing some examples of the purpose for which the obligation to keep pipes in good order and repair should apply, failed to make reference to water conservation. We have re-examined that provision in the course of the overall review of the section and, on reflection, it is considered best to...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: Senator Bannon is correct that I originally indicated my acceptance of amendment No. 76 but my amendment No. 75 offers an alternative approach to achieve the same purpose. Regarding privatisation, the water services authority is not a new body, rather it is a new name for the existing sanitary authorities. I had expected some Members to allude to privatisation, as was the case during the...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: I should explain the background to these amendments. Section 44 enables water services authorities, on request, to carry out repairs to service connections to which the owner does not have ready access because they cross neighbouring land. At present scope is confined to repairing connections. In certain circumstances, therefore, it may be open to being interpreted as not providing for...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: The Bill contains provisions on way-leaves. Amendments Nos. 78 and 79 to this section are somewhat different. There is no change to existing way-leaves. We want to ensure that in addition to repair work, renewal of service connections can be carried out. Previous legislation provides for repair of service connections only. However, there is a clear distinction between repair and renewal....

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: This amendment is necessary to broaden the application of section 45. Its effects will be to ensure that liability for damage to a pipe will apply whether caused directly or indirectly. Under the provision, as currently worded, it may not be possible to successfully prosecute a person who was engaged in construction work in the vicinity of a pipe owned by a water services authority and whose...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: The person or company who causes the damage shall be responsible for the repairs. Senator Bannon is correct when he states that many of the group water schemes were established some years ago. Where trustees pass on or retire, new trustees can be appointed. In short, the person responsible for the damage shall be the person or company who causes it.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: The Bill makes provision for the replacement of trustees. We are all aware, having spent time on local authorities, that many group water schemes were anxious for various councils to take over such schemes. Many councils took over group water schemes which met the required standards. I realise it is difficult to find people willing to do the work and that this, in turn, is somewhat unfair to...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: Section 46 updates sections 281 and 282 of the Public Health (Ireland) Act 1878 which requires, inter alia, sanitary authorities to obtain prior approval from public authorities before undertaking work in their functional areas. To avoid disturbing the status quo between water services authorities, now sanitary authorities, and other public authorities, the Bill accordingly provides that...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: The amendment is considered unnecessary because the administrative exercise in question is unnecessary. The provision is a standard one that is found in many Acts.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: As it is currently worded, section 48 requires the Minister to consult "any Minister of the Government" that he or she considers to be relevant before he or she makes regulations "requiring water services authorities or other persons prescribed" to undertake specified consultation in the course of the exercise of their functions. If I accept the amendment, the section will require the...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: Section 50 enables a water services authority to enter into an agreement with any person to provide water services, subject to planning permission requirements. Such an agreement can be reached with a view to the subsequent transfer of ownership of the infrastructure from the person in question to the water services authority. The amendment proposes to restrict the requirement to take...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: Section 50 enables a water services authority to enter into an agreement with any person to provide water service infrastructure, with a view to that person subsequently transferring ownership to the authority. Therefore, the agreement to which Senator Bannon referred does not relate directly to the discharge of its functions per se by a water services authority. On the other hand, the...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: The insertion of a provision restricting agreements under this section to fixed charge agreements is unnecessarily restrictive and pre-empts any ongoing development in public procurement policy. The purpose of this section is to enable a water services authority to enter into an agreement with a person to provide water services infrastructure with a view to that person subsequently...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: Section 51 provides for the powers of a water services provider to temporarily interrupt services for maintenance purposes or where there is a risk to human health or the environment. The first of these amendments removes the seven day, prior notice stipulation from subsection (3) in regard to planned interruption of water services. It is not considered appropriate on a practical, operational...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: The purpose of this amendment is to ensure the powers under section 52 to recover sums due can be duly assigned to any person performing a function under the Act. Section 52 provides generally that a county or city council acting in its capacity as a water services authority or its agent may recover any sum due to the authority either through the courts or by deduction from any other moneys...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: I am referring to any debt that would be due to a county or city council acting in its capacity as a water services authority. Section 52(6) enables the Minister to assign his powers to others, such as a group water scheme or contractors, to recover debts over and above the water services authority. This amendment provides the mechanism — nothing more, nothing less — for them to do so.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: There is no domestic water charge.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: It would have been foolish of me to expect to go through 50 sections of the Water Services Bill without reference to water charges. I am delighted to confirm that there are no domestic water charges and the Government does not intend introducing them, whether Senator Bannon welcomes this or not. The Bill does not contain any provisions for the introduction of water charges. Instead, primary...