David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his courtesy and for putting that on the record. The average cost was computed by an independent source at ¤370 per year.

I welcome the legislation. By and large, it is a good idea, and I welcome that we should pay for what we consume. Any excess in the money raised should be used for the water services. I hope that any profits could be put towards quality control of water because we have had a very bad record in certain areas of the country in terms of bacterial pollution and so on. If we are going this way the system needs to be efficient and must secure good quality water for all our citizens.

I hope it is not too late to ask the Minister of State if it is possible to put all the utilities to work together and thereby ensure we do not have a situation that I regard as entirely ironic. I am in the Chamber today listening to the Minister of State telling us that Bord Gáis has the best people to do this work because they have such expertise. Yet they put in a meter for me that is entirely inaccessible and sent me a daft bill. There were a number of situations in the old days where things were very ramshackle and supplies were run through a house, all being joint until they got to the back of the house and were fitted to somebody else out there. That situation is not the responsibility of the current owners but of whichever nincompoop put in the system. It may have been the local authority or an unscrupulous landlord. Why should people in that situation be deprived of the efficiencies of metering? There must be some degree of flexibility here. This is an opportunity to resolve these ramshackle amateur situations where there is inappropriately shared water supply. I hope that issue will also be tackled.