Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My amendment on transfer day was ruled out of order. I have great concerns about how transfer day is set out in the legislation, prescribed as 1 January. I presume water supply systems in unfinished housing estates or town sewerage infrastructure which does not meet EU environmental standards will also be transferred to Irish Water on transfer day. While I know the Minister of State does not have responsibility for unfinished housing estates, this issue is a timebomb.

It will be an issue come the next local elections in 2014. It will be very difficult for councillors, Government or Opposition. Through no fault of their own, they will be left to carry the can, with residents coming to them who have not made their applications to local authorities to take over their housing estates before transfer day on 1 January. Thereafter, Irish Water will set the standards with which wastewater treatment systems will have to comply before it takes them over. The local authorities and housing estate residents will have to fund the cost of bringing the systems up to standard. These are people who have bought houses, have high mortgages and young families and live in estates all over the country, including commuter estates outside Dublin. They and the local authorities will not have the finance to do this work.

I heard what the Minister of State said, that another Department was responsible for bringing all parts of unfinished estates up to standard, but no fund is available to do the work required. While the local authorities have drawn up a list of all the estates and the work that must be done, they do not have the money to meet the costs associated with it. I am talking about estates where developers have gone bust. Let us remember that the councils granted planning permission for these estates and were to obtain bonds from developers. Some of these bonds may be available to carry out some of the works, but in the vast majority of estates the bond would not cover a fraction of the works to be carried out.

On transfer day, according to the capital requirements for bringing public service infrastructure - wastewater and public drinking water - up to standard, it would cost €600 million annually in the next ten to 15 years to fund all of the work. It gives me little hope when I see a 32% reduction in the water infrastructure and capital investment programme during the 2011 to 2014 period. I acknowledge that the Bill provides for Irish Water to raise capital of €2 million in the Irish markets, but that will not fund what is required. That €600 million annually would be spent on public infrastructure to meet EU legislation, but that would not cover the 2,500-plus private estates throughout the country. Some of it involves roads and footpaths, but wastewater treatment systems account for the vast majority of the big, difficult issues.

How will local authorities fund themselves to meet the standard Irish Water will set after transfer day? Perhaps the Minister of State might outline what the standard will be because it is not set out in the Bill. What standard will Irish Water set for local authorities for private wastewater infrastructure that will be transferred after transfer day? What will be the cost of bringing all these pieces of infrastructure up to standard? From where the money will come? We can say another Department will pay for it and that is fine, but under this legislation, the local authorities will be duty bound and people will be left high and dry. They will be caught between a rock and a hard place. At least the local authority is currently responsible for wastewater and public drinking water, but these functions will be transferred to a semi-State body, Irish Water. I can imagine housing estate owners in Connemara, County Louth, County Monaghan or Donegal Donegal ringing a call centre in Cork to try to negotiate the taking over of their wastewater treatment systems. It will be much more difficult because we are centralising the system and that will leave things much more difficult and we are not sure what the standard of compliance will be.