Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The legislation is very specific about the membership of the forum. First, one must be a customer of Irish Water which means one must be able to pay. What about individuals who are not in a position, through no fault of their own, to pay for a water service? There are individuals who will not pay even though they can afford to do so. However, there are individuals who genuinely cannot afford to pay and have no place on this forum. Their voice will not be represented on the forum which is wrong and I want to Minister to clarify the matter for me.

Sinn Féin's amendment is timely and has opened a debate on the ability to pay and the investment programme. Not only will Irish Water be responsible for charging; it will also be responsible for setting fees for new connections. We do not know what the fee for new connections will be in the future either, whether in rural or urban areas. A matter which will affect every house or apartment built going forward into the future.

The role of the Commission for Energy Regulation is very relevant to this section and amendment and it should be objective. Its regulatory role is to bring a monopoly situation closer to the market forces. I very much question the qualities of the commission, its objectivity and the manner in which it takes the ability to pay into consideration and whether it take customers' views and opinions into consideration when making pricing decisions. In this instance the commission was railroaded in terms of pricing because there is now a whole new pricing model. In this particular case the role of the Commission for Energy Regulation was undermined by the Government due to political circumstances and the fact that the people's voice was heard to some degree.

We have talked about a new forum being established and we have talked about listening to people from the forum. We have democratic forums in both Houses of the Oireachtas, one in the Dáil and one in the Seanad, but the voice of the Opposition has not been heard in this debate.