Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I share the frustrations of Senator Ó Domhnaill that amendments we put down are ruled out of order. My amendment, amendment No. 24, was ruled out of order because it involves a potential charge on the Exchequer. My intention is to find out what we have failed to find out, as Senator Norris asked on the last occasion - that is, the amount of the "generous" free allowance. That will be an expense. I attempted to quantify it in terms of a number of litres, but the amendment was ruled out of order because it involved a cost to the Exchequer.

There will be a cost to the Exchequer if the Minister of State implements the programme for Government commitment to the generous free allowance, of which we still have not been told. Neither do we know how much the water charges will be. It is time for the Department to come out with details of the expenses. What will the Department itself bear, how much will be the free allowance to users and what will be the cost of the water? Most of the other amendments seem to have been ruled out on fairly contestable grounds, but the Minister of State should tell us the full cost of this and who will bear it.