Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for his ruling. We will have a plebiscite, which is unheard of in the history of the State, as opposed to having water as a right and a guarantee to the citizen. We believe this should be enshrined in the Constitution and should be included in the referenda to be held next year. It would give assurance to people no matter what Government is in place or who is in charge.

The problem with the wording on shares is that it is possible to have subsections of shares, and assets, infrastructure, companies and sub-companies can be manoeuvred. Subsidiaries of Uisce Éireann could be moved, as could customer billing, and legal people would be able to argue Irish Water was not actually sold. This could well be the case as a technical point of the law. People want to be assured the State will maintain control over all aspects, from the provision of water to customer billing, if the Bill is passed. All that people can really believe with regard to what is being said about Irish Water is what is written in the legislation, and not what is being promised in speeches in this House and other places, or what was being promised in advance. The Government previously stated it was not possible to deal with ten different issues. We were told these were absolutely impossible. However, U-turns were made on all of them.

There was a U-turn on the suspension of the charge. A household benefit payment, a winter fuel allowance and tax credits on payments were introduced. There was a replacement of the water conservation payment, a side-lining of the free allowance, an expansion of water application packs, the introduction of flat fee and the temporary abandonment of water meters and the bonus system for Irish Water. We were all told this could not be done yet it was done. The CER has been sidelined and now the Government is fixing pricing and not an extra cent in capital investment. Now the Government is telling us that there is all the capital investment in the world. When people see those U-turns and what the Government said could not be done being done, and when they were told that we could not have people having a say in Irish Water and the Government doing a half measure on a plebiscite, one needs to understand how people have no faith in the Government's assurances on the privatisation. The wording and phraseology by Minsters is quite clear. They talk about the infrastructure. There is no money in the infrastructure. The financial houses are looking at how they can maximise an investment on taking over the billing and that is where the money is. There is no provision within Irish Water to stop that from happening because the U-turns that have happened in the past 12 months can happen again.

As we know from plebiscites and the Constitution, the wording here can be interpreted in so many ways that it will not prevent them from retaining the infrastructure and at the same time, ensuring that the Government, which has abandoned Irish citizens and which says that it does not represent people who do not agree with it, cannot assure them that at some future date without a plebiscite or a constitutional amendment, it could not sell them down the Swanee and sell the billing rights under the great auspices and guise of the ever-demanding European search for the all-mighty euro and the belief that someone must make a profit at all times and that there should be competition. On the altar of competition, we would then see many of the people that the Government has abandoned and turned into customers would then be required to pay not to Irish Water but to some third party which has won a competitive bid.

We see in rural Ireland how disastrous the provision by private entities has been when it comes to broadband. I would imagine that in respect of our famous and much-lauded infrastructural improvements that the Government said could not happen but now there is capital investment in the water services, we would not see that happening. We will never see a plebiscite but I can guarantee that at some future date because of the requirement for money and Europe's instructions, we might end up having to look at a situation where there will be four different providers of the service who do not own the infrastructure but who will end up billing the customers nonetheless. In that case, the Government will say that it is within the legislation. Therefore, the U-turn will go from ten to 11 and the Irish citizen, who is our main concern, will be no better off.