Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am not sure who paid for them to come here. What was important was what they had to tell us. They told us that they were the ghosts of water future in that this type of commodification has occurred in Detroit. They were warning the people of Ireland not to go down the same route.

It has been stated that the reason for the introduction of water charges is to allow for future investment in this area. I do not buy that. By way of example, I cite the regional water scheme in Casla, which comprises most of south Connemara, where a campaign has been ongoing for many years in respect of clean water provision. After 40 years, permission was finally granted for that regional water scheme. The first half of the scheme, in terms of pipe installation, has been put in place but the second half, which had the agreement of the county council and the Department and in respect of which planning permission had been granted, has now been scrapped by Irish Water. Irish Water has told the campaigners of that scheme that it will not be opening up any more sources and that it will provide water from regional water schemes. In the case of Casla, the water will be pumped from Galway. When we inquired of Irish Water what exactly was meant by that, we were told that it is proposed to replace the current approximately 400 water schemes throughout the country with 30 regional water schemes on the basis that this will be better for conservation and ensure better quality water. I know that what is really going on is that the ducks are being lined up for commodification of water services.

It might be suggested that Irish Water will always own the assets, etc., but we all know what will happen in that scenario. We know that in a number of years time private companies will seek to tender to operate the regional water schemes.