Pringle emphasises importance of keeping water services in public ownership
- Updated: 10th November 2022
Independent TD for Donegal, Thomas Pringle, said a referendum on the future of water services should be central to the Dáil debate on Irish Water.
Addressing the Dáil on Wednesday, Deputy Pringle said: “I worked in water services as a caretaker for Donegal County Council in the real world before I came in here. I would like to say I know exactly what the rural independents were saying when they talked about the commitment that workers make to actually ensuring that water supplies continue on, right across rural Ireland.
“And you’d be forgiven for reading the minister’s speech and thinking that there was no water service before Irish Water came about, and actually that’s not the case. There was a huge water service, they were kept going by people in local communities.”
The deputy said he believed that was in the process of being lost, as jobs transfer to Irish Water.
Speaking during statements on water policy, Deputy Pringle said: “We don’t know what’s going to happen, if there is going to be any ongoing commitment to staffing and to local staffing after that. And that will be lost and that will be to the detriment of water services right across the country, if that situation is allowed to happen.”
Deputy Pringle said he thought the debate was supposed to focus on the need for a referendum on the future of water services, but the minister’s speech did not reflect that. The deputy has addressed the Dáil previously on the need for the referendum, saying he opposes Government attempts to take power from local authorities and move toward outsourcing and privatisation.
The deputy said: “I think it’s been mentioned probably in about one paragraph, or one sentence even, of the minister’s speech for a seven or eight-page document. And that’s going to be vitally important because that’s going to ensure that water services will stay in public ownership.”
