Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to bring the Bill before the Seanad today. It is good to be back in the Seanad, which is the House with the better debates, to be honest. I acknowledge that I am bringing the Bill to the House very late in the year. I very much appreciate the additional time which has been allocated and I thank everyone.

We had more than 40 hours of robust debate on the Bill in the Dáil. During the debate we had an extensive exchange of views on many different issues. It is fair to say we did not have full agreement, and that is being polite. However we had a good debate and many issues were raised. I reflected on these and as a result I tabled two amendments on Report Stage, which have been incorporated in the Bill as passed by Dáil Éireann. I will touch briefly on these.

With regard to section 2, which provides for a plebiscite of the people in the extremely unlikely event that a future Government proposes to initiate legislation that would lead to the privatisation of Irish Water, I fully understood the views and concerns expressed by Deputies. It is something I would abhor and there is no way on this earth I would tolerate the idea of such an event happening. Based on the debate, I introduced an amendment to section 2, to remove absolutely any doubt that a legislative proposal to privatise Irish Water, or to otherwise sell any share held by the Government must - and I emphasise "must" - be put before the people in a plebiscite.