Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Much has been said in the past 48 hours about Irish Water and so on. I remind Members that taxpayers spend €1.2 billion on water, of which, unfortunately, €600 million is wasted. One litre of water out of every two that is purified in Ireland is wasted. The concept behind charging for water is to create an incentive to ensure people will conserve water and treat it with the respect it deserves.