Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It does not matter. If such a subcontractor fails in its job, we will not have water services. Consequently, I am not at all satisfied with the manner in which things are going.

My colleague, Senator David Cullinane, asked for the withdrawal of section 2 in its entirety and that is not a bad idea. Let Members get rid of the plebiscite proposal totally and return the Bill to the Dáil. Before it proceeds any further, Members should instigate or initiate a Bill for the holding of a referendum on the ownership of Irish Water. I reiterate that the expertise to do this already resides within the Government which suggests a plebiscite would protect us. Were the European Union to decide at some stage that competition law was not being met with respect to the ownership of Irish Water, would it protect us? Can the Minister guarantee that the European Union will not, at some point in the future, use competition law to force this country to sell off part or all of Irish Water or the company to have a subsidiary private company to produce water or to have private companies maintain the water supply? While the Minister argues that this cannot happen, I refer to the Lisbon treaty, the Lisbon 2 treaty and all of the other re-runs during the years and I am not at all satisfied. In fairness to the Minister of State and his senior ministerial colleague, they are trying desperately hard in a desperately hard situation. At this point, I compliment the Members on the Government side who took an extremely difficult decision to support section 2 yesterday, as did a number of Independent Members, who have received the most horrendous backlash for their vote yesterday. That is unfair because people do what they believe is right. Members must acknowledge this and one must admire them for doing so.

I constantly hear about how no Government ever will do this or that. The only thing of which one can be sure and certain is the moment or second in which one is living. In two seconds time I could be dead, as could anybody in the Chamber. It is possible that in one year's time, no political party currently represented in the Chamber will be in government. Members must protect the system of water in public ownership and enshrine this in the Constitution. That is the only way in which they can be sure it will happen. I again tell the Minister of State that the Government must stop. It has already angered the entire population, including ordinary, decent people who would never take to the streets and never get involved in any protest. The Government has angered them to the point where they are turning out in their tens of thousands at the drop of a hat. This is only going to get worse and the Government should move to try to appease them by dealing with some of the problems. The easiest way to do this would be to enshrine this in the Constitution. At this point, I have not received an answer from the Minister of State that would satisfy me on any issue Members have raised and perhaps he might have a sos. He should go outside to have a chat and find a way to answer these questions.