David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While amendment No. 60 was ruled out of order, I wish to deal with the substance of it in discussing the section. Sinn Féin is opposed to the proposal to allow assets to be used as collateral by Irish Water in the event that it wishes to borrow money. In the first instance these are public assets that belong to the people of the State. If Irish Water was to borrow against assets that belonged to the State, those assets would effectively be for sale. We would see this as a stepping-stone to the privatisation of Irish Water, with which we disagree.

I know the Minister of State will say that is not the case. However, we can only point to the example of refuse collection. Local authorities provided that service in the past just as they provide the service of water to households. When refuse-collection charges were first introduced there was a certain subvention from central government. That was reduced over time and eventually the full cost was passed on to the customer. As we know, that service was eventually privatised across all local authorities. We are concerned that the same will happen with Irish Water. If we allow assets that belong to the people to be used as collateral by Irish Water to borrow money, that would be the slippery slope to privatisation. We oppose section 28 on those grounds.