Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The water conservation grant is another sliding mirror smokescreen. Senator Healy Eames is correct to suggest this is all about getting people to sign up and nothing else. I cannot understand how the Minister will gather whether we have conserved anything. Are we going to employ inspectors to check what conservation measures have taken place in each house? Do I simply sign up and state that I have conserved water or carried out water conservation in my house? One explanation is that it will contribute towards bringing the network up to standard to meet metric tests established by the Commission for Energy Regulation. We are moving around between different Departments. It is a question of sliding mirrors and smokescreens. It is just another scam to get people to sign up, nothing else. We induce people with €100. We get them in for €260 for a couple of years but then we will have to double, triple or quadruple the costs to pay back the money that the Government will have borrowed in the meantime.

All of this is assuming the company lasts past its first year. I believe it will be insolvent within a few months because no one is going to pay. This is my problem - no one is going to pay. Where do we go then? We have a vast quango with thousands of employees and no way of paying them or no way for the company to pay for itself. The Minister should not try to cod us. People are watching this tonight and wondering what we are playing at.