John Whelan (Labour)

I call on the Leader to arrange, at the earliest possible juncture, for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to attend the House. I know he will be here to deal with other matters, but it would not be fair to ask him to deal with this issue at the same time. A question that is pending before the Cabinet is the establishment of a new water authority. Perhaps we might call it Bord Uisce. It will be one of the more significant, serious and profound decisions the Government will make because it will have serious implications for the entire country and economy for the next 50 or 60 years at least.

It is appropriate in the current warm spell to bear in mind that reservoirs throughout the State are already, in March, running dry, with those serving the Dublin and Leinster regions depleted to worryingly low levels. No new reservoir has been built in this country for 70 years. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government must, at the earliest juncture, inform the House of the Government's plans for the establishment of the proposed new water utility, to be called Irish Water or Bord Uisce. We have enough chiefs and chief executive officers in this State to form this body from existing agencies. We must draw on the existing corporate knowledge, skills and capacity within the semi-State sector, including Bord na Móna, Bord Gáis and the National Roads Authority, to establish and operate this new water utility.

The vulnerability of water resources is a matter of serious concern for householders, the business sector, the agricultural sector and for foreign direct investment, which relies on a sustainable and secure supply of water into the future. The Minister must inform the House of the Government's thinking and the direction it intends to take on this matter. It will involve the installation of metering and the repair of the piping network throughout the State, which is currently leaking thousands of gallons of water into the ground. If water charges are to be introduced, it is vital that we get it right in establishing a national water utility. There is no room for error in this matter. The consequences for the economy of constituting this utility without the proper structure and capacity would be disastrous.