Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Would it be possible to allow an extra half an hour for Committee Stage of the Pyrite Resolution Bill 2013? I spoke to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, yesterday. We have tabled five amendments and Sinn Féin has also tabled amendments. The extra time would give us a chance to go through some of the amendments on which I hope we can get some agreement. If we finish before that additional half hour has expired that is fine but I think we will require it because we had a good debate on the Bill yesterday.

We have been debating the Water Services (No. 2) Bill 2013. To inform colleagues of the reality of what is being done in this House and what will be done in the Dáil tomorrow, my party colleagues under their group leader on Dublin City Council, Councillor Mary Fitzpatrick, held a meeting yesterday attended by all the groups and Independents with Irish Water and the city manager. It transpires that €2 billion worth of assets will effectively be taken from Dublin City Council which will be saddled with a pension liability of €330 million. This will apply to every local authority in the country.

As Dublin City Council is the largest of these the impact will be greatest on it. Any democratic input into the management of water will be removed from our local authorities. More worrying yesterday was that none of the Minister's officials would attend the meeting with the city manager and the councillors, of all parties and none, to try to address their concerns. I know that the Minister, Deputy Hogan, was in this House yesterday so I would not have expected him to be there. If that is the way Irish Water and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government will interact with local authorities it shows that we are creating probably one of the greatest quangos created in the term of this Government.