Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I can see tangible evidence that Irish Water is working and that investment is being made in services. We need our towns to have good water services if we want to attract industry and investment. Whatever else we say about Irish Water, it is a commercial operation.It now has significant resources which will allow it to address many major infrastructural problems throughout the country in the next couple of years and to gear up many towns and villages in order that they will be able to avail of inward investment and benefit from expansion by local industry.

This Fianna Fáil motion is inaccurate in that it states therein that €750 million has been spent in the establishment of Irish Water. The cost was reviewed by the Commission for Energy Regulation and, according to it, the actual figure was €172.8 million. I advise Fianna Fáil, in the context of any future motion it proposes to table, to check the facts before doing so.

Irish Water has made a good start. It is only two years in operation. It is hoped that in five years time the country will be in a much better position and that many of the problems, including leaks, about which many speakers have spoken will have all been fixed and that we will have in place water and wastewater systems as good as anywhere else in Europe.