Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join others in seeking an update on the Irish Water situation. In line with my party colleagues I call for the full suspension of water charges until such time as we have some clarity and until we see an end to type of headless chicken management that we became used to under the former Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, and that we see from the Government and the management of Irish Water. Some of the examples are frightening. In one case I am aware of, which is similar to the situation in many older parts of cities and towns throughout the country, there is one access point and one meter beneath an old house and this is distributing to several properties on the street. Following an inquiry in recent days about how the situation could be rectified, Irish Water informed me that if I could send on €1,500 in advance, it would arrange for a contractor to come and then the contractor would invoice us for rectifying the situation.

We continue to have issues between landlords and tenants in respect of who is responsible and, in the event that the tenant does not pay, whether the landlord is liable and so on. We have a government in denial. Backbenchers are wringing their hands, as Senator O'Brien has rightly said.

It is clear that nobody at all has any business acumen. I will use a supermarket as an analogy. We have employed 100 managers, 100 administrative assistants and 100 directors before there is even a loaf of bread on the shelf, before there is even a recipe for baking the loaf of bread, before there is even a safe way to provide that loaf of bread, while expecting people to pay for it. The only logical and fair thing at this point is to suspend the operations of Irish Water until such time as we can stand over the infrastructure and the quality. Only then should we introduce a charge, based purely on ability to pay. It should not include those on social welfare or the less well-off.

This has not been a plan. It has been the high-profile exit strategy of the Commissioner-in-waiting, Phil Hogan. It has done little more than put a further dent in a Government that the people are continuing to lose confidence in. The reality is that those in government are completely detached from the needs of the people in the context of water and what they can afford. I second the amendment put forward by Senator O'Brien.