Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the package agreed by the Government on 19 November and the water conservation grant. The new measures around payment allow for greater certainty and affordability. The original timescale for the creation of Irish Water was highly challenging and it was underestimated how much work would need to be done to ensure this utility would be up and running smoothly. We all acknowledge the mistakes made. As Senators Landy, Cummins and others have said on this side of this House, many of the issues and flaws pointed out by Opposition Members in previous debates have been resolved in this Bill. Again, fair-minded people will accept that this Bill addresses those issues. It is a response by the Government to the concerns expressed democratically by people through their elected representatives and public action on the streets. We saw the latter in great numbers last month.

Changes will be made to the governance of Irish Water. The public water forum is an important development. The Government established the Convention on the Constitution which shows the way in which people power through appropriate fora can really work and ensure democratic governance. The convention recommended that economic, social and cultural rights should be enshrined in the Constitution but that more scrutiny would be needed as to how that would be done. That is the sort of constitutional text we should be working toward in the future.

Everyone on both sides of the House has acknowledged the need to ensure the conservation of water.

There is no right to a wastewater service. In our current mechanism we have an enormous level of waste. The Minister has also spoken about the high levels of leakages and the fact that we need a complete overhaul of the public water system.

Senator John Whelan has commented that in Dublin we are on the verge of running out of water. Those of us living in Dublin are well aware that we did run out of water last Christmas for many periods, some lasting many days. It was a huge problem for all domestic households but also for those running businesses, particularly restaurants and hotels, over the busy Christmas season. That is the infrastructure that is creaking and flawed and that has suffered from decades of under-investment. That is the issue Irish Water is seeking to tackle.

Some important facts have been highlighted on this side of the House in terms of the savings already visible from the creation of one utility from 31 separate local authorities operating a flawed and creaky water infrastructure. The saving of €170 million arising from the Ringsend wastewater treatment plant upgrade and €12 million in procurement annually are very important and remind us of the need to ensure a better system of management and governance of the precious resource that is our water supply. The Minister mentioned the global context. We know that water is a precious resource internationally, too, and that this is going to become an increasingly difficult issue internationally. This is part of a package of changes. We need to give people incentives to conserve and no longer a right to waste.