Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join in the extension of new year good wishes to my colleagues. During our last sittings before Christmas, we proved the value of the Seanad when, for 18 hours, as Senator Cullinane has said, we discussed the Water Services (No. 2) Bill. All of the things we predicted then have happened. All of the amendments we tabled have been proven worthwhile. Senator Ó Clochartaigh sought to make provision for local authority involvement in Irish Water, while others wanted to enable the involvement of the National Consumer Agency and the Competition Authority, and we wanted the utility to be subject to freedom of information requests. We also called for investments by Irish Water to be appraised by the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform. We wondered why an energy regulator was put in charge of water, given that they are completely different commodities. I thank the Leader for the time allowed for that debate and I hope he conveys to the Cabinet the fact that this is a most useful House and had it been listened to before Christmas, many of the current difficulties would not have occurred. This is a wise House which will assist the Government in policy making. Unfortunately our offers of help were turned down, but that was not the Leader's fault.

"Down the drain" was the title of an editorial in The Irish Times on 6 January 2014 which referred not to Uisce Éireann but to €225 million spent on Dublin transport projects which now have a residual value of €10 million. The author argued that "huge financial cost has been incurred, but with no public benefit accruing from the project". Legislation is expected on the abolition of the Railway Procurement Agency and its integration into the National Roads Authority. I ask the Leader to ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to include measures in that legislation to ensure that capital investment appraisal in this area does not show the kind of waste that is highlighted in the aforementioned editorial published in The Irish Times.