Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House, as well as his amendment to the freedom of information legislation. Irish Water, which has had a dreadful start, needs to be brought under the freedom of information legislation. It should also come under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General as to how it spends money. I must commend the chairman of the Oireachtas environment committee, Deputy Michael McCarthy, on how he conducted the recent hearings with Irish Water.

The Minister should note the Seanad had scores of amendments tabled on the water services legislation but the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, not the Minister of State, Deputy Fergus O’Dowd, did not want to listen to or debate them. We asked for the National Consumer Agency and the Competition Authority to be involved in an attempt to regulate a monopoly. Over the past two years, we have failed to even get a figure for the average water bill and the free allowance.