Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is great to be able to acknowledge for the record that every single party in the House and those not in parties have all supported the motion. It is great the Government is not opposing the motion. It would be insane for it to oppose it.

I am not happy enough with the answer, specifically the timeline for the abolition of the charge. There is none. It is up to the CRU, I believe. How often does it revisit its charging policy? I ask in order that I can go to the community groups and the young people who have been asking me about this with a decent, clear answer as to how long more we will be waiting.

The Minister of State mentioned a pilot scheme, but we do not need a pilot scheme. A pilot scheme is where something new is being tried. We already have water bottle refill stations in several places in Ireland; we just do not have them in very many places. We have had them for three or four years in Howth and Blackrock. We got one in Ennistymon two and a half years ago. We do not need a pilot scheme. We do not accept that. Irish Water and local authorities do not need a pilot scheme. Deputy O'Donnell is Minister of State with responsibility for local authorities. I would love to know if any local authorities have asked him about this issue. I ask him, as Minister of State with responsibility for local authorities, to help me on this and get it over the line. We do not need a pilot scheme. Pilot schemes are to try new things. This is not a new thing. Everybody here is saying this is not a new thing and it is a no-brainer we should have done years ago. I do not accept the response. People say, "You are in government, so it is up to you." It is not up to me on my own, however; it is up to all of us in government together not to accept that a State agency says it needs to do some kind of pilot scheme. We are the people elected by our people. We represent the public. The public want this, so the State agency of Irish Water needs to get over it. I do not accept there needs to be a pilot scheme. That is not a good enough answer. This can be done in a matter of weeks. We get rid of the charge and we get our water bottle refill stations. Everybody here has mentioned the issue of the waste of money and the waste of plastic. We do not need to pilot this in any shape or form. There has already been loads of piloting.

There is a great slide by Denis Murphy, a great Kerry musician, called "Going to the Well for Water". Would it not be great if we were all to meet socially going to our water fountains for water? It would be another lovely social link, and people always want connections. As I and other Senators have said, we need fountains in every village and town. We need them at GAA clubs and sports facilities and amenities. There are some lovely ones along the greenway in Waterford, which is great for people on that greenway, but there is none in the town centres.

I will put it back to Deputy O'Donnell, as Minister of State with responsibility for local government, to ask for a better answer from the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, read out the answer he got from the Department, but who is in charge? Is it Irish Water and the local authorities or the politicians elected by the people? We have to push back on the State agency's response to this. We do not accept that we need a pilot scheme. It is not needed. I remember 1999, when my son was a baby. I had him on my back when I was in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Milltown Malbay, and my sister, my friend Sharon Tannian and I had signs with three words on them: "reduce", "reuse" and "recycle". "Reduce" was the biggest sign, "reuse" was the second biggest and "recycle" was the smallest. We are still stuck in the 1990s when it comes to this stuff. One huge difference - and it is so simple - would be to get rid of this charge. I do not accept that we need a pilot scheme. I do not accept that from Irish Water. The politician's job is to represent the people. The public want this, so we have to push back on the State agency and say: "Sorry, Irish Water, we are not accepting this." The CRU has to work within the parameters of our programme for Government. We got this in the programme for Government. The response is not good enough. I want a timeline as to when we can envision this for the young people who want this and everybody else.