Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Countries have been brought to their knees by vulture funds, bank speculators and corporations which put up bills, beggar the poor and rape those countries of their natural resources. The privatisation of state waters around the world has one common denominator - it always happened under pressure of international lenders. Some 34% of water throughout the world is privatised and we will not bring it up to 35%. Privatisation is always about hard technology and water rights. They privatised water in poorer areas of South Africa and disconnected it. They privatised it in Tanzania and the people had to buy it back. They privatised it in the Philippines and it gave rise to cholera. They privatised it in Paris and it took it back. They privatised it in Germany; it is now owned by the public. In the EU the selling of water supply for a financial bailout is part of the Greece and Portugal negotiations.

The Minister says it can never happen here and he is right. I know it will not because the people will not let it. Standing beside the Minister the other day, Mr. Tierney said he would like to apologise to his customers. I do not know to whom he was talking because I am not his customer. I do not know why he was even speaking like that. He was addressing the Irish public. It is true we have legislation to protect Irish Water for the people, but the legislation is loose and wayward. It can be interpreted or realigned to suit a purpose. I do not trust it and the people do not trust it. I stood alone here when we discussed the national lottery and the legislation was changed. The beet went; the infrastructure of our telecommunications went. We do not trust it.

It is also entangled with a private-public company, Bord Gáis Éireann. What is it doing with a private-public company, Bord Gáis Éireann? Bord Gáis Energy was sold to Centrica for €1.12 billion and there is much to be said on that. Fine Gael claims it will not sell it and I believe it. The Taoiseach says - I respect and admire him - he will not sell it and I believe him. Fianna Fáil claims it will not sell it and I believe it. The Independents say they will not sell it and I believe them. Sinn Féin claims it will not sell it and I believe it. However, I am not too sure I trust the future. I have hope for it, but I do not trust it because no one knows what will happen in the next five months, let alone in the next five years.

I want my child, my grandchildren and all of our grandchildren to know it will be enshrined - that is the word - in the Constitution for the people in perpetuity. It is my only message to the Minister this afternoon. There is no comparison to anything else. That is why the vultures, the swagmen and all these corporations are standing at the seashores; it is because it is like oil. It should be preserved, purified, supplied and paid for. It should be fair, just and affordable. It should be ours and not semi-ours, not private-public ours; not under the wing of Bord Gáis Éireann ours; not a bit of ours; and not half-ours. It should be constitutionally "referendum-ly" ours.

Then the Minister might start talking to the people about three things: what they should do with it; how they can best do it; and why they should personally invest in it. We cannot treat water as the largest company on earth as is being done all over the world because when we view water in economic terms we make a fundamental change about ourselves.

I ask the Minister to relay this message to the Lower House because there was a whisper from a Member here this morning when we won the vote in the House. The word was that it would not pass in the Lower House. I am not too sure about that if there are major changes. I think the Minister can enshrine it in the Constitution. He can be brave, creative, worthy of his position, and valiant.