Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. At all times in the House and at committee meetings, he has distinguished himself in the service of Waterford. The lost water rate in Waterford is 31%. It is 55%, or 50%, in Tipperary, 44% in Cork, 36% in Clare, 48% in Limerick city and 48% in Kerry. There are no economies of scale. The idea of one big organisation is not supported by the data. Senator Michael Comiskey comes from the smallest county in the country, Leitrim, which has a wastage rate of 36.5%, whereas Galway, which has about eight times the population, has a rate of 50%. The first economic fallacy in this debate is that by making one big organisation one gets rid of many inefficient organisations. Details of the 34 local authorities contained in the appendix to the McLoughlin report show that the rate of water wasted is lower in many small counties. That is the first bit of economics that the proponents of this system should have learned. The one-big-organisation model is not one that applies in this case.
The Government stumbled, having done so much to deal with the problems. Today we get six good reasons to worry for the future of Irish Water, despite the new charges planned by Colette Browne. An editorial in The Sunday Timesstated that the Coalition would not survive the water debacle. Conor Brady of The Irish Times stated that protesters had poured cold water over the Government's credibility. A survey in Trinity Newsfound that 74% of students thought it was badly handled, while only 3% thought it was not. According to The Examiner of 25 October, there is €420,000 perk for water bosses. Irish Water has been freed from a €59 million bill for rates, according to The Sunday Times. Another headline is "More staff may be hired to administer Irish Water grant." Who will handle the €100 grant in the Department of Social Protection, given the waiting lists for invalidity and disability payments. This has been a disaster, and at this stage the issue should be restored to local democracy. The local authorities should be allowed to remain the providers of water services. The local authorities never attracted the public odium that Irish Water has got. It is a pity to stumble at the last fence in the economic reconstruction of this country.
When we tabled amendments providing that the National Consumer Agency would be brought in, one would have thought it was the most radical thing in the world, given the way the Minister of State's predecessor reacted. I think that is now happening, if I heard the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, correctly last week. The Competition Authority will be involved. This is a monopoly we have decided to make. To involve the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform in guidelines for capital expenditure, we proposed that the charges should not apply to any consumption below the average consumption per household. Why? Because the person who is using less than the average is not the one wasting it; it is the person who is above the average consumption. All of those amendments were turned down in the 16- and 18-hour debates we had.
The off-balance-sheet issue is a piece of economic hocus pocus. The EU or EUROSTAT said that if we did it this way, it would be off the balance sheet. I would not buy anything from somebody who is trying to conceal the facts of the case off the balance sheet.
We have not dealt with the issue of productivity. Mr. John FitzGerald, one of the most respected people in Irish economics, said we are doing with 4,000 people what should be done with 2,400 people.