Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I wish to bring to the attention of the House a matter arising from the issue we discussed recently, the schools water charges. The bills are being sent out by well-known companies. I have been a Member of this House for 20 years and I cannot remember the House ever deciding to privatise our water or to give our water away to companies. My colleague, Senator Ross, has referred time and again to the mistakes made more than 20 years ago when control over the toll bridges was handed over to NTR. I have some news for the House; NTR is a 50% owner of the company Celtic Anglian Water, which is supplying water to the Connemara Gaeltacht. Now that NTR has been paid off by an eventual €0.75 billion to allow the traffic to run free in Dublin, it is locking onto the water in Connemara and in other places. In a similar way, companies such as Veolia which run——