Paul Bradford (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Leader attempted to facilitate us last week by having a further debate on Irish Water. It must be recorded also that, unlike in the Dáil, where the legislation on Irish Water was rushed through the House in a matter of hours, we had a substantial debate here in the Seanad over a number of sessions. Looking back, many of us would raise issues now that we did not raise on that occasion, and vice versa, but it is better to try to deal with problems as they emerge rather than in 12 or 24 months' time.

Interestingly - this is a point I made during my Second Stage contribution because it had been brought to our attention by Colm McCarthy in the previous week's Sunday Independent - there was one unusual aspect to this legislation. Uniquely in terms of the way all other items of legislation are presented to us, all of us got a copy of the Bill giving the legal details of what was being proposed, but the Explanatory Memorandum gave the detail of the transition body being set up, which is a combination of Government, Irish Water and unions. Some of us raised questions on Second Stage, which were not answered satisfactorily, as to the genesis of that approach. Notwithstanding the substantial debate in this House, which in fairness the Leader facilitated, it would be helpful if the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, who tried to be helpful when he was in the House last December, returned to answer the questions now emerging. It is nobody's fault that these questions are emerging but it will be the fault of all of us if they are not answered and dealt with. It would be very useful, and very wise in the long run, if the Minister returned to the House as soon as possible to allow the new questions arising be presented to him so we can try to resolve this problem before it becomes a serious mess.