Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

The details of the investment by Irish Water have already been explained ad nauseamat this stage. The problems that were outlined were brought to the attention of Irish Water and were dealt with in an open and transparent way by the assets manager of Irish Water, Mr. Jerry Grant, on radio this week. Some 120 plants need to be upgraded, including the plant in Roscommon, which I mentioned. Priority will be given to the plants in areas that are on boil water notices and some 20 water supplies must be upgraded. Some €2.3 billion is necessary to build up the network between now and 2021. We currently have 978 sources of water and that number has to be reduced to avail of economies of scale. As of 4.50 p.m. today, more than 1 million people have registered with Irish Water. Clearly that is indicative of the views of the people. People are registering in their thousands on a daily basis. They have got the clarity they needed from the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, and his Minister of State, Deputy Paudie Coffey, in this House during the debate of more than 20 hours. They are satisfied in the main and will register and qualify for grant assistance for conservation. They will pay their bills.
However, a number of issues must be clarified, namely, the relationship between tenants and landlords and I ask the Minister of State to comment on that in his response. The other issue is housing estates that have not been taken in charge by the local authority and effectively remain as private property. Many of these estates are entangled with cowboy developers who have gone to Australia and other places or are in NAMA.We are in a situation where the people living in these housing estates are living in private property. In some cases these householders are fed up to the teeth with the way the estate has been left and they do not want meters installed. This issue must be clarified. With respect, I ask the Minister to address this issue today.
People were frightened by the Fianna Fáil Party's assertion that they would be paying €700 per household in water charges. We have dealt with the issues.