Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I did not interrupt the Senator. The Government is continuing with this progressive water programme. It outlines how this Government will ensure, as a priority, that we have safe, clean and adequate water supply that will serve this country's needs for years to come. It should have been done during the years of the Celtic tiger but instead people have boil water notices and must buy water.

Uisce Éireann was established to merge 34 local authorities together into one national service provider with the aim of reducing cost, generating economies of scale and increasing efficiency. I acknowledge that we tried to do too much too fast in the beginning. It took the Scottish authorities ten years to do what we did in ten months. That is where a big problem arose but that has now been corrected.

A single utility will yield a saving of €1.1 billion in operating costs over the next seven years. Everything that needs to be done cannot be done in a day. For example, it was originally projected in local authority estimates that the Ringsend treatment plant in Dublin would cost €350 million but Irish Water has stated, and it has been agreed, that the upgrade will cost €180 million which includes over €70 million for retrofitting. That means Irish Water will save us €170 million on that one upgrade of the Ringsend treatment plant and thus provides value for money. Such a saving should be acknowledged since Irish Water was established.

To ensure there is a customer-centred focus going forward the Government has committed to establishing a public forum on a statutory basis to ensure everybody can make an input on water provision. I ask the Minister to ensure that the measure is worked on straightaway and that it is established.

The Government could not invest money in the bad situation we found ourselves in and it had to provide €600 million off balance sheet for water.