Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On the section, I wish to express my misgivings about the Minister funding both Irish Water and the commission itself. The section states "The Minister may, for the purposes of this Act and subject to such conditions as he or she may determine, make grants out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas to ... Irish Water, or ... the Commission". My concern is that the commission is meant to be the referee between an extremely powerful water company and the individual consumer. I wish to avoid a dependency culture in regulatory agencies and the fear that he who pays the piper calls the tune.

Most sectoral regulators funded by the producers' responsible Ministers do not function very well in Ireland. They tend, as I noted previously, to be captured and a reform that might be considered in the future is that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform should become the funding Minister for regulatory agencies. This is reform is badly needed as such regulators tend to be captured and do not represent the consumer. If they are funded by the Minister, they become dependent on him or her and will not act independently. This substantially has been their track record and consumers are not protected. While I will not push my opposition to this section, it is worth stating that checks and balances are needed in this regard and the funding by the Minister of a body that is supposed to tell one whether the Minister is being efficient strikes me as not being the way to do this. It has not been a success in so many other fields.