Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The water issue will be discussed in the House tomorrow. Could I ask, as I did last week, that the activities of Irish Water be put under the scrutiny of the Comptroller and Auditor General. This would allow the matter to go to the Committee of Public Accounts, which has distinguished itself by extracting information that this House tried to extract when the Bill was being debated here but all our amendments were turned down.

I note that Irish Water intends to employ 400 people at its headquarters in Dublin. Today the Central Bank announced that its headquarters will cost €140 million. These bodies exist to serve the public, not to develop an edifice complex. The state of banking in Ireland requires that the inability of the Central Bank to punish reckless banking should be addressed much more than building headquarters.