Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is this Government’s turn to face its responsibilities. This organisation needs to be abolished. We must stop throwing good money after bad. I have shown its abject failure in accounting and the waste of €785 million. What could any of us have done in our areas with that sort of money for infrastructure? Instead it is gone, €540 million has been spent on redundant meters, €45 million on top-heavy management salaries; and €41 million so far and €25 million per annum on interest payments. This is the people’s money. The House should take some of these figures on board.The figures do not lie. I have given Sligo as one example of how the shoddy work of Irish Water so far is to be further extended to undermine the capacity of counties such as Sligo in the north west, on the periphery of our nation in trying and yearning to benefit from the little recovery that is beginning in Dublin. What chance have we got in the north west if there is not even water for a single extra resident, much less the thousands of people who are homeless nationally, the thousand who are on the local authority waiting list in Sligo, the private demands that will come and for the 70 acre industrial park that God knows the north west needs? However, the Minister, the Government and its creation, Irish Water, intend to completely undermine this and stifle growth because they do not have the capability to provide the water.