Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is very important. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Hogan, this and I ask the Leader whether he would agree with me. The Government is selling Bord Gáis but it has committed that it will not sell Irish Water. Leaving the pension liabilities with the local authorities is making sure that Irish Water has a clean balance sheet and very low pension liabilities, so the Government is teeing it up already, before it has set it up, to privatise it. I want a commitment from Government that in no way, shape or form will it sell or privatise Irish Water. However, the way in which it is structuring the pension liabilities and future liabilities tells me that what the Government is trying to do is to set up a lean company so that, into the future, it will flog it. That is something every citizen will be extremely concerned about.