Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

When a local authority did not function in the past, the Government installed a commissioner to run it. We are getting close to that situation with Irish Water. There are reports of the meetings yesterday of the Government parliamentary parties where the issue was raised. There is surplus staff, a bonus culture, weak regulation by a regulator that pays its own staff bonuses, the inability to communicate, the "take it or leave it" attitude and the off-balance sheet vehicle that is allegedly meant to promote investment. We need to debate what is turning out to be a poll tax. The consumption of water does not change as people's incomes increase. We used to pay for water through general taxation, even though the first piece of propaganda put out was that we did not. The losses were mistakenly blamed on the consumer rather than the supplier. We must recover from a very bad start in the operation of Irish Water. Will the Leader arrange for a debate early next week in which these alternatives are considered?

I note the opinions of Fr. Peter McVerry on the housing crisis. Like me, he welcomed what the Government did on Tuesday, but this is a multifaceted problem. In the buy-to-let sector, tenants need protection when their landlords are in trouble. In communications with Senators, the former Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, showed an interest in this matter. Can we get a lease and a tribunal on rents for such people? The rental sector is here to stay. If we can index rents to some measure of consumer prices, tenants will be protected in their leases. The amount they pay should not be decided in a bubble economy by the vulture capitalists who are taking over buy-to-let properties. The landlords went broke, not the tenants.

We need to tackle brownfield sites in city centres. There is so much dereliction between Heuston Station and Christ Church Cathedral. Are all of those landlords waiting for a bonus when Dublin City Council comes calling with compulsory purchase orders? Can we impose obligations on them to maintain their properties? Brownfield sites have something to contribute. NAMA offered empty houses to some local authorities. As the Leader will recall, there was a low rate of acceptance. The houses might be in the wrong places, but we cannot all live in Killiney and Dalkey. If houses are available and we have a homelessness problem, the Minister should attend the Seanad to debate the matter in the widest possible context within the parameters set out in Fr. McVerry's article, including the question of the capital gains tax paid by people who flip trophy homes and take out large property supplements in our newspapers, distorting the way we view the housing issue.