Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State would be one of the first to admit to me that one of the great bugbears in Irish society on an ongoing basis is the use of consultants and the amount of public money spent on same.

I want to reiterate what has already been said by my colleagues because it is important to do so. Irrespective of what might have happened, what might have been proposed to happen or what might have been predicted to happen five years ago, the current Fianna Fáil policy is to abolish Irish Water in its present construction because it is not fit for purpose. That is precisely what our policy is and I do not want to hear any more talk about what it might have been, what it was to be or what the predictions were because that is far back in the public mind. This Government is being called to count in regard to how it managed Irish Water.

The abolition of Irish Water should happen primarily because it is not fit for purpose. That is not to say there should not be some form of public utility, with which even Sinn Féin agrees, to manage our water system. I agree with what Senator Craughwell said that there has been no clarification on the question of contamination from lead piping. My understanding is that under the "first fix free" lead piping will not come into it at all and that it will be left to the household to figure out what it will do about poisonous lead piping.

I think everybody has come around to the view that water is a human right. A friend of mine said to me six months ago when this question first came up that he did not understand why any Government would want to introduce water charges on an island where we have a surplus of water. This is an island nation surrounded by water and we have more lakes per square mile than any other part of Europe. We have an immense amount of water coming from the skies on a regular basis. Why, in the name of goodness, would any Government want to introduce a water charge, because we have an abundance of water? Having said that, I will admit that I am conflicted, to a degree, by the view that there should be some form of metering, as the Minister of State quite correctly said, to identify leaks in the system. I am not against the concept of that.

I remember when the newly-elected Deputy for Roscommon-South Leitrim, or Roscommon-East Galway as it will be, was asked that question when he went on RTE. Much to the surprise of many people he said he was not against water metering because, coming from rural Ireland like many of us, he was well used to water metering on group water schemes. I pay tribute to the various water schemes throughout the country which manage their water systems in such an efficient manner. They are metered, so I am conflicted to a degree. However, what I am not conflicted about is the extraordinary amount of money that has gone into Irish Water in 12 months alone. What is being talked about now is that over the next four or five years, several more million euro will be spent on the provision of water meters which will not be used at least until 2019. They are the issues that are of concern to us in Fianna Fáil.

There is a need for a brand new policy and there should be a review of all that has happened over the past 12 months. Suspend the water metering system and get rid of Irish Water and let us start to use the money that is currently being squandered to ensure there is water conservation.

I think Senator Landy said it was wonderful that members of the general public were responding and were registering in vast numbers. I suggest that one of the reasons they are doing so is that if they do not, according to this Government's proposals, it will cost them €100 more to pay for the water at the end of next year. Why would they not register to save themselves €100 in these straitened times?