Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I bow to the Acting Chairman's knowledge. In an interview, Councillor Paschal Fitzmaurice of Fianna Fáil stated he does not have a problem paying a reasonable amount of money for water; that the amount being charged is very fair as it is quite a low amount of money; and that as the money must come from somewhere, the idea some people have that we can have every service and pay for nothing is not reasonable. The councillor is well known to some of my colleagues on the other side of the House. His views are very reasonable, considering that in his area of Roscommon up to 10,000 people were on boil water notices. This is being resolved by the Government and the actions of Irish Water.

The water meters being installed, contrary to what the motion states, are robust and will last for up to 25 years. They will last in excess of meters installed by the gas company or the ESB. More than 500,000 meters have already been installed and much play has been made in the motion about the cost of replacing them after 15 years, which is incorrect, as it will be between 20 and 25 years. The maintenance cost based on the running of the company will be 0.1% of the annual budget. For any utility company, 0.1% is not, as has been stated, an excessive figure or too much. It is a very reasonable figure if one looks at similar utilities in this country and throughout Europe.

The Irish Water legislation, which went through the House on 21 December, did not address U-turns by the Government, as outlined in the motion, but rather concerns expressed by the public day to day to people such as me, the Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, who lives quite close to me, and other Oireachtas Members based in urban parts of the country. It set about reducing the costs, which we were told by our Fianna Fáil colleagues would be approximately €700 per household. It also set about dealing with the issue of PPS numbers, and at 4.45 p.m., at a briefing which I noted was not attended by any of our colleagues who tabled the motion, I was informed by Irish Water that by the end of February all the PPS numbers in written format would be destroyed by the regulator.

All voice messages received will be dealt with in the subsequent month. The method of payment, which was a major concern for the people, was addressed in the Bill we dealt with before Christmas. A conservation grant is being introduced to assist households to reduce the use of water by installing water butts, etc. I have been informed by Irish Water that more work on this is in the pipeline. Quite clearly the public confusion, stirred up in many cases by the Opposition, has been removed by the Bill we put through the House in December. I have listened to the contributions from the Opposition. I forgave some of them when they spoke on the Bill at 3 a.m. in December, but to be making a similar contribution at 5 p.m. today is a bit hard to swallow.