Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are questions to be answered. To correct something that was said yesterday, Senator Jim D'Arcy must have misunderstood me when he implied that I was trying to implicate the Garda in some way - far from it. I am sure the Garda had nothing to do with it and I wish to have the Garda completely vindicated in this regard. However, clearly there is something here and we must find out about it. Questions must be answered and I do not believe the Minister is treating it with the level of seriousness it requires.

Second, I agree with Senator Darragh O'Brien regarding a debate on Irish Water.

I am very concerned about today's headlines, as Mr. Tierney has indicated that the repair of the network could cost up to €10 billion. That is hardly surprising with the kind of costings and overheads he seems to think are reasonable to create in a bonus-led culture. I am concerned that somebody flippantly presiding over these salaries and who gets all his buddies from the local authorities to come in, although they already have pensions from the State, is now saying this will cost €10 billion. Before we set up Irish Water, the correct action would have been for each local authority to do an audit of what the costs would be in certain locations. This could have been done with local contractors. Instead, a major multinational will be engaged to fix the network at a cost of €10 billion or €15 billion, instead of creating employment in national or indigenous companies.