Colm Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State. When I was Lord Mayor of Cork a number of years ago, I had to take a trip to Kenya. I visited a hospital 125 miles south of Nairobi, which did not have a water supply. The only water staff had to use was collected from the hospital roof during the two weeks of the year it rained, which was pumped into ten 50,000 l tanks. That was the hospital's water supply for the remaining 11 and a half months of the year. When one visits such a place, one appreciates how much water we waste. The hospital was still able to undertake 2,500 operations a year in those conditions.

I support Senator Whelan's proposal. It should be examined whether it is feasible to use existing organisations to provide this service rather than setting up a new structure. If savings could be made, this should be considered. It should not be ignored, especially given the NRA has the expertise and it is only a question of bringing in additional staff to deal with this new responsibility.

In 2010, the State spent €1.2 billion supplying water, of which €500 million was allocated to capital investment. Over the previous ten years, more than €5 billion was spent on the water services capital programme. That is a considerable amount of money. We must be economical in terms of continuing to provide a good service while achieving value for money. My colleagues have referred to the savings that have been made in other countries. The Scottish water authority achieved savings of over 40% in real terms through the establishment of a single, centralised body.

It amazed me during last year's cold weather that when people went to turn off water supplies to their houses they found the stopcocks were buried in concrete or tarmacadam because of road resurfacing. One of the things I noticed in Brussels, where I lived for two years, was that I had to shut off the central valve for the water supply to my apartment when I left it on a Thursday evening. All that is needed to waste a significant amount of water in our schools is to leave two or three toilets dripping over a weekend. It should not be a case of going outside to find a stopcock. Why can we not introduce regulations requiring every property built from now own to have installed an internal valve to control water supply so that people can disconnect the water if they go away for a weekend or a week?

My colleague, Senator Keane, noted that usage decreased when metering was introduced in the UK, Northern Ireland and Denmark. When water metering was introduced for commercial premises in Cork city, a jeweller's shop which employed two people discovered that it was using 4,500 litres of water per day either due to leaks or because it supplied other buildings. Metering will identify where water is wasted.

We should also consider other mechanisms, such as the aforementioned internal stopcocks, to help people prevent water wastage. I refer in particular to office buildings, schools and public buildings which do not need water during weekends or holiday periods. We should consider new regulations in this area.

I welcome the proposal to centralise the system. I have received complaints from local authority employees who work on the ground to repair sewerage systems and water lines about the mobility of engineers within departments. One workman told me that an engineer never remained in charge of a particular area for longer than 12 months, with the result that those who did the manual work had to provide the expertise. The establishment of a central authority will allow for continuity of staff. Local knowledge is extremely important. When we establish the water authority we should get the best value and the best service possible.