David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely. I will respond again to what the Minister of State said and simply am setting out the logic for his benefit. He states that he wishes to incentivise people to conserve water and use it more appropriately and that charging for it is one mechanism that will do this. This in turn will incentivise people to then invest in technologies, be they automatic taps with sensors, auto-flush toilets, rainwater harvesting and so on. The Minister of State asserts this would be a good thing but he will not provide grant aid to them to do it. My point is that some people would like to be able to invest in such technologies and to avail of the savings but do not have the money to invest. Were grant aid available to them, it would save everyone money because, to follow the logic of the Minister of State's argument, it will save money. However, he is not prepared to help those people who will not be in such a position. Low-income families will be faced with water charges and despite my opposition to the charges, if they are introduced people will be faced with paying them. However, they will be faced with not having the technologies that would help them to conserve water and not having the money to invest in them. It is short-sighted to state this will not be done because the money simply is not there. That is the wrong approach to take and I believe it will have a more negative impact on low-income families.