Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I add my words to those of Senator Pauline O'Reilly and others in welcoming the publication of the White Paper on direct provision this morning. It is important to highlight that this was a Government commitment but it is also important to recognise and acknowledge the role the Green Party played in this when joining government. I hope the provisions will be implemented by 2024.

I wish to refer to a different White Paper. We had extremely bad weather in Tipperary earlier this week and we had road closures and water outages. Almost any time we have a mist in Clonmel or Tipperary, we have a water outage. At the same time we had all these problems, the White Paper on Irish Water was brought before Cabinet. I ask the Leader if it is possible to bring the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in to discuss the White Paper in detail. I ask that because it is important when local authorities are putting local development plans together that we align the priorities of local authorities with the priorities of Irish Water. That is not happening at the moment. If we need to think about regional investment going forward, then we need to have those two things aligned. Serious concerns are raised in the White Paper, and certainly in terms of staffing issues. Some of the measures seem to be fairly optimistic in terms of having an 18-month implementation period. A reasonable phased transition should be considered as part of it.

One of the striking things about the White Paper is governance and accountability. From my reading of it, there seems to be very little accountability in terms of the interaction between local authorities and elected representatives, whether local or national, to follow up on items on behalf of the public. When we are looking at an organisation that is going to be 80% funded by the Exchequer, then to have no accountability to public representatives who represent the public is of serious concern. I would like the Minister to come in here and outline his vision for Irish Water.