Seanad debates

Thursday, 18 December 2014

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed)

 

4:45 pm

Photo of Marc MacSharryMarc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Paudie Coffey, and thank the Acting Chairman for giving me the opportunity to say a few words.

Obviously, like everyone else on this side of the House or certainly all of my Fianna Fáil colleagues, I will be opposing the Bill. I appreciate that the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, is somewhat new to the role and that it is clear that there has been an element of listening, given the adjustments the Government has made to move from its original plan to the current position. However, as the saying goes, if it was me, I would not start from here. Throughout the country the quality of infrastructure is variable. Obviously, some of the infrastructure in Dublin is more than 100 years old and not fit for purpose. In Senator Terry Leyden's county of Roscommon there are boil water notices and this issue sneaks into south County Sligo which is supplied from Lough Gara and where people also are unable to drink the water. There are other scenarios such as that in Sligo town which has a state-of-the-art system known as the Foxes Den that pumps water from Lough Gill and services the greater urban area of Sligo and on which there has been a lot of expenditure during the years. The quality nationwide is so diverse that this is the priority and what needs to be dealt with. It was necessary to assess what needed to be done, cost it and then set about doing it. Moreover, this should have been done through the system of local authorities which were doing the job well. As I have stated previously, in Sligo the go-to lady in dealing with any problem connected with water was Ms Kathleen McTiernan. While she was a tough woman, she did her work exceptionally well. There was a Kathleen McTiernan in every county and just as the National Roads Authority does its work and delivers through local authorities nationwide, that is how one should go about upgrading infrastructure throughout the country to the same standard as that in places such as Sligo town where a lot of work has been done. The question then arises as to how it would be paid for. I believe up to €10 billion is the Government's own figure. As I do not disagree with it, we must be innovative in how it is done. The Government might consider a bond issue or using aspects of the National Pensions Reserve Fund to raise further moneys, perhaps through the European Investment Bank. Obviously, that would create employment and bring the system up to standard, which is the priority.

I believe I have used this analogy previously, but the Government has set up McAlpine to build a house. To put it another way, it is like setting up Kerrygold when all one needs is a milking machine. This is a huge structure that lacks local knowledge and is detached from the people who were doing the work well on the ground, namely, as in the case of Sligo, the Kathleen McTiernans in every local authority area who knew exactly where all of the bodies were buried and knew precisely what had to be done and how to do it. When such persons were given the right resources, they got the system up to standard. This could have been done instead of putting this structure in place. This time two years ago the same water service was being delivered throughout the country.

Nothing has happened in between except that we have spent about €770 million on salaries, consultants, meters and so on. That is unacceptable; it is ridiculous. I have had the opportunity to speak on Irish Water before and I will not delay the House, as I know others want to get in. The reality is that we should revert to a local authority system. We should abolish Irish Water and we should set about bringing the water quality and infrastructure up to the standard to which people are entitled and there are other ways of funding that.

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