Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, to the House. The Bill is a complete disaster for the Government. Like all other Senators I have received an enormous amount of e-mails. The e-mail systems are practically blocked up as a result. There is a consistent message from people that enough is enough and they have reached saturation point as far as taxation is concerned. This is the fundamental issue in this particular regard.

Water and its infrastructure have been paid for by taxation over the years. People on farms have been paying for water for a number of years. We pay Veolia, which is a multinational company given the responsibility by Roscommon County Council of collecting the water rates, but 20,000 households in Roscommon are not able to drink water as a result of bad management and pollution which has not yet been resolved. During the by-election, commitments were given that no charges would be put on people who had boil water notices but it was then decided they would have to pay for the discharge of water even though the water in the first instance was not drinkable.

One must bear in mind the introduction of the household charge, which has been reluctantly accepted by the Irish people. It is collected by the Revenue Commissioners. It is obvious this charge should have incorporated water. A specific percentage of the household charge should have been earmarked for water. Irish Water is a quango, even though when it came into office the Government promised to abolish quangos and reduce the number of State companies. Irish Water is one of the largest State companies to be established. Unfortunately there has been political involvement through appointees from political parties and retired county managers. Anyone who could be appointed was appointed on a political basis, such as membership of the Fine Gael Party. I believe the ratio is two Fine Gael members to one Labour Party member with regard to judges, peace commissioners and prison inspectors. It is the old system and the Government has not changed it. It continues to develop.