Boil water notices to continue in Roscommon until 2017

Householders in northeast Roscommon will not have clean water until March 2017, more than a year after the next general election, the Dáil has heard.

As the Government prepares itself for an anti-water charges protest this afternoon outside Leinster House, Independent TD Denis Naughten said he had received correspondence from Irish Water in the last few days it would be 2017 before people in the county's north eastern region would be able to "drink the water that's coming out of their taps, which is a long way down the road yet".

Mr Naughten was speaking during committee stage of the Irish Water Services Bill, which gives effect to the Government’s proposed changes to the charging regime for water and the operation of Irish Water.

During an hour-long debate on the legislation that finished at 1.07am today, Mr Naughten said residents in parts of Roscommon would, between now and 2017, have to pay, €130 a year “for the pleasure of that water” if they lived in an urban area.

Roscommon is one of the counties most affected, in some areas for decades, by boil water notices for its tap water.

Mr Naughten, TD for Roscommon-South Leitrim, noted the Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly had said it was a priority for him to end boil water notices and that "in the very near future for the first time the people of Roscommon would be able to drink their water out of taps".

He said former minister of state Fergus O’Dowd had stated “Irish Water should not be allowed to charge for water supplies subject to restrictions on health grounds” and legislation gave the Minister powers to act on this.

He had been told there was no need to write it into the legislation that there should be no charge, but the Bill under discussion in the House would charge families €130 for water that is unfit for human consumption.

Mr Naughten also introduced an amendment to guarantee the assets of Irish Water would not be disposed of at any future date.

He said now that local government was clearly written into the Constitution, his amendment would require every single municipal authority in this State to approve that particular motion for the disposal of the assets of Irish Water.

That would provide the belt and braces security that it cannot happen at the whim of any future government whether we have the troika or any other troika here in the future.

He said the Minister for the Environment had given a commitment on November 19th, which is not written in the legislation, that there should be a plebiscite if any assets of Irish Water.

Mr Naughten, a former Fine Gael deputy, said the Minister’s plebiscite was “only a three card trick”.

He described the legislation as “seriously flawed” and said the Government was repeating its mistakes by rushing the legislation through again.

Independent TD Catherine Murphy proposed amendments to add safeguards against privatisation of Irish Water, including the requirement of a two-thirds majority before it could be sold.

She said the assets being transferred from the local authorities to Irish Water were worth about €11 billion and in recent days it had become very clear that the liabilities would not transfer.

“This makes Irish Water a much more attractive proposition for sale,” Ms Murphy said.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said the issue was not just about water and charges, it was about dishonesty and the Government thinking they can "just play the people for fools".

He believed it was the Government’s approach to “show a little bit of humility and appear to be listening”.

But, he said the intent was to play the people for fools and this continued in the late sitting of the Dáil.

He said it was “part of the continuous game playing”.