John Whelan (Labour)

I am pleased to welcome the Minister, Deputy Hogan, and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, who have taken time out to clarify the confusion that has surrounded the issue in the media in recent weeks. It is not just important that water charges are introduced, it is imperative. Such a measure is long overdue and should be done on merit, regardless of any EU-IMF bailout criteria. Of course, water charges, when introduced - an issue the Minister has put to bed this evening - must be in accordance with Government policy on the basis of metered usage over and above a free and equitable allowance.

There was a baffling suggestion in the House yesterday that somehow or other the Labour Party would act as a drag on reform and the hard decisions to be made by Government. For me, that was rich coming from a party which failed to make any tough decisions in favour of political expediency for years on end and whose laissez-faire style allowed the country to sleepwalk into its woeful financial predicament. For years on end, despite repeated and potent warnings, the previous Government grossly underfunded local government which led to a deterioration in water services. When it came to putting the country first, the ordinary decent hard-working people of Ireland, ahead of bankers and speculators, the Fianna Fáil-Green Party-Progressive Democrats Government again bottled the hard decisions on the night of 29 September 2008, resulting in the ill-fated bank guarantee scheme. It continued in the same vein of wishy-washy leadership and, while denying it in public, had already lifted the latch on the back door and invited in the IMF. The sell-out of our economic sovereignty was complete.

I have heard numerous history lessons in the House in the past fortnight, but far worse are the efforts to rewrite history. It is hard to put up with the hand-wringing and crocodile tears for the hard-pressed householder. Let me make it clear: the Labour Party will not wash its hands of the hard decisions such as the introduction of fair and transparent water charges. We will stand up for the introduction of fair and transparent water charges. I do not believe a person in a household would have a difficulty in paying for good quality water and a service that was reliable, safe and sustainable. Everything happens in a context. The historical political context to the urgent imperative to introduce water charges dates back to a previous power grasp by the Fianna Fáil Party when it was desperate to win an election and its then leader Jack Lynch infamously introduced the 14 point manifesto. The Fianna Fáil Party got its result, but in the process it sold out the country yet again and bankrupted local government. That reckless and unnecessary abolition of domestic rates and road tax is the genesis of where we are today, in requiring resources to fund vital services such as the provision of water. It is high time we put people before political profit and did not take the soft options. It is high time we put people before false prophets. There is no such thing as free water. Somebody must pay the price. If we do not introduce fair and transparent water charges to help finance the provision of the service and encourage conservation, we will pay a high price with wholesale rationing, disruption to business and the loss of foreign direct investment due to our inability to ensure the security and quality of our water supply.

As a journalist by profession, I can scarcely complain about the occasional exaggeration. I have been known to be given to the odd bit of hyperbole myself. However, in this House we cannot afford to speak out of both sides of our mouths and, on the one hand, agree in principle with the need to introduce water charges and, on the other, scaremonger with the warning that families will not be able to afford to bathe their children on a Saturday night. I come from a generation when more than one child was washed in the same bath water, but let us not throw out this baby with the bath water. I am not in the habit of buying bottled water, but as an exercise in research for this discussion and debate I found that the smallest bottle of water in the shops cost about €1. One will not wash too many children, prepare too many meals and have too many showers, much less a bath, with that drop of water, yet people gladly pay €1 a day for a bottle of water on their way to work or over lunch. It takes eight pints of water to brew a pint of beer; on average, an individual uses 155 litres of water a day and it takes 1,000 litres of water to produce a kilogramme of beef. We each use 22,000 litres of water every year just to flush the toilet. We do not expect a free pint or a free steak and we all know there is no such thing as a free lunch. How can we continue to expect to have free, clean and safe water in our home every day?

It is worth noting that whatever food source is at the end of the latest deadly E. coli outbreak in Germany, scientists now agree that the cause is probably contaminated water which kills more people worldwide each year than food shortages or starvation. To paraphrase what a Deputy said in the Dáil last week, we cannot pretend that we are all Manolos and pretend we know nothing. We know in our heart of hearts that it is not economically or environmentally possible or sustainable to pretend that we do not have to charge for a secure quality water supply and wastewater management system. We must encourage people to conserve water and, where possible, to turn to non-treated water supplies for such industrial, commercial, agricultural and domestic tasks as watering the garden or washing the family car, as appropriate. Fair and equitable charges will encourage this.

We have no water reserves and our supply levels are at the maximum. The supply-demand balance is on a continuous knife-edge. Even allowing for the best remedial actions and repair works to an archaic pipeline system, we will reach a critical shortage of water to supply the greater Dublin area by 2016 or, in the best case scenario, by 2023, leading to wholesale rationing and water shortages. We have not built a reservoir in more than 50 years, not even at the height of the boom. This is yet another example of lack of vision and leadership. Bord na Mona, one of the country's most progressive and forward-looking organisations, has such a plan. It has a plan to build the Garryhinch Eco-park and water storage treatment facility on 1,500 acres of cutaway bog on the Laois-Offaly border. Its development is vital and would solve our water supply, water security and sustainability issues for decades to come as it would be capable of supplying water to Dublin and ten surrounding local authority areas. It would be State-owned and operated, avoiding problems encountered elsewhere when such a strategic asset was privatised. Furthermore, it would set aside the need to establish yet another unnecessary quango at a time when it is Government policy to reduce the plethora of such agencies, boards and bodies.