Colm Burke (Fine Gael)

I have visited a number of countries in which water was in scarce supply. At one hospital, water needed to be collected from its roof - it only rains there for two weeks per year - and stored in ten 50,000-litre tanks. That supply must sustain the hospital for 11 and a half months. In this light, one appreciates the value of water.

In some Irish local authority areas, that more than 40% of water is wasted indicates significant inefficiencies. We must address this issue. Centralisation has been mentioned. One of the good initiatives taken in the past 20 years was the establishment of the National Roads Authority, NRA. It is not too long ago that the road network between Ireland's two major cities, Cork and Dublin, was appalling. It was the NRA's careful planning and work with local authorities that brought about changes in road infrastructure.

Likewise, setting up a national authority for the supply of water while involving local authorities is the way forward. This is what the Government is doing. When we debate the matter, it is important that the Minister make available to us details of wastage in the system so that people can see that they are not getting value for money. At the end of the day the taxpayers are paying for that wastage and they want value for money. Senator Cullinane referred to services being wound down or restricted. In the health care area, the number of medical cards has increased from 1,145,000 to 1,736,000. At the current rate of progress more than 2 million people in this country will have either a medical card or a GP only card by the end of this year. Somebody has to pay for these cards and the only people available to pay for them at present are the taxpayers. What we are proposing will provide value for money. Let us have a debate on the matter so that the Minister can show us where inefficiencies are costing the taxpayer money. This is a way to create efficiency and value for money.