Richard Boyd Barrett: Accuses 'Stealth Privatisation' of Irish Water

We urgently need to invest in our decrepit water infrastructure that is totally inadequate to deal with the housing needs that we have with about almost half the water leaking out of the pipes because of a Victorian and decrepit infrastructure. We need a water system that is responsive to the needs of people rather than one that refuses to get back to you, refuses to talk to you, refuses to engage with the public or its representatives. But the government, instead of doing what is necessary to actually address this, is engaged essentially in a stealth privatisation of the water infrastructure to facilitate private for profit interests. And where is the evidence to back that up? Well, this is the operating, this is the annual statement of Irish water most recently available for 2024. The operating costs, the single biggest item for operating costs in Irish water for that year, and I presume it's the same in the more recent years, $335 million was hired and contracted services. And they list out the companies, private builders and contractors out of it. Now, these people, so we've had a stealth privatisation through the back door. That's, by the way, of course, why the government doesn't want to have the referendum, which they promised, after we successfully defeated the attempt to introduce domestic water charges through mass mobilisation and resistance. And we won a commitment, which has been reneged on, to have a referendum to ensure that the water infrastructure would stay in public ownership. The reason Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have not wanted to do that is because they're representing these builders and contractors who want to loot the Irish water infrastructure and are progressively privatising Irish water through the back door. And what is the cost of all of this in terms of the quality of water services? Well, James Brown's own department were told that there is a huge cost, as officials told him at the beginning of this year, that now Irish water are having to clean up the mess left by small private contractors doing wastewater infrastructure projects around the country, that they're making a bag of them in huge numbers of cases. Because we don't have the local authority workers who are actually experts, who are working directly, who are accountable to the public, because they were redeployed and all that expertise was lost and handed over to private contractors profiteering from our water infrastructure. And in many, many cases, as the Minister has been told, they can't even do the job properly. Also, the lack of funding, of course, which is part of a deliberate strategy to run down our publicly run water infrastructure. We need 60,000 houses a year. That's what we've been told. Irish water only giving the money for 30,000, for the infrastructure for 30,000 houses a year. And then, of course, creaming off the top the big salaries that Deputy Healy talked about, something that wouldn't be happening if it was with the local authorities, as we argued at the time that Irish water was set up. So, let's have the referendum that was promised. Let's give the whole thing back to the local authorities, the people who have the experts, who are running on a not-for-profit basis, and let's put in the investment necessary to deliver the housing and deal with the decrepit water and wastewater infrastructure. Thank you. Thank you.