This morning we heard the announcement by Irish Water of its new seven-year plan, a key element of which is the decision to lay off between 1,200 and 1,500 people. This comes after the same entity created 700 additional jobs over and above those that were already in local authorities delivering water services and paid bonuses in respect of those 700 positions. It was also confirmed that there will be a flat-rate charge for the next seven years despite the fact the Government decided with Irish Water to spend €550 million on water meters that will, in essence, be redundant for the next seven years and perhaps beyond. It is a colossal waste of public funding. Irish Water has failed the EUROSTAT test when the rationale for setting it up in the first place was to have it off balance sheet. It no longer can be and there are very good reasons for that. Up to half the people have not paid their water charges and the conservation grant will be given to those who do not pay their water charges. By the way, the Government is even screwing up the giving out of the grant, which it cannot do properly. There are thousands of people ringing up and the form is impossible to decipher and follow through.

It is people's general taxation which has paid for this. From motor tax alone, €265 million has gone for the establishment and operational costs of Irish Water while next year it will be €316 million. If one takes the full total that has been spent, we are worse off by €800 million. Up to €800 million has been spent on this entity and not an extra cent has been spent on water infrastructure. Less has been spent over the past three years per annum on water infrastructure than was allocated in the previous three years.

A question please.

Those are the realities.

The Government is getting flushed out of it.

The fundamental question is why the Government set this up in the first instance at all. It has not achieved anything it was intended to achieve. Will the Taoiseach outline to me in terms of the cost of laying off the 1,200 to 1,500 people how and when that will take place? Will he set out the status of the flat-rate charge post 2022? Will the conservation grant continue to be paid to those who do not pay their bills? Does the Taoiseach accept that the water meters represent a colossal waste of public money given that they will not be used for the next seven years of the plan or even beyond that?

Deputy Martin is a complete fraud on this matter.

Hear, hear.

He is utterly fraudulent.

The Government messed it up. The Taoiseach rewarded the man who messed it up and sent him to Europe.

Settle down, please.

Fianna Fáil did very well out of it - 19%.

The reason is that Deputy Martin's party always supported the concept of contributions for services, including water. Fianna Fáil went to the extent of having a €400 charge in its proposition until it saw the people to Deputy Martin's right shifting ground, after which that party said it did not want water charges, at least not for the present. Now, Fianna Fáil wants to restore the situation that applied before with 31 local authorities.

I welcome the Irish Water business plan. It sets out a €5.5 billion investment plan to 2021 so that all of the challenges and difficulties that were apparent for many years can be dealt with. The plan includes, for example, the elimination of all boil-water notices, making safe the supplies that are currently at risk for 940,000 people, ending the practice from 2015 of continuing to pump raw sewage into our rivers, harbours and seas at 44 locations throughout the country, there for all to see, a reduction in the amount of leaks from 49% to under 38%, and an increase in the fresh water capacity for Dublin city in particular where it is currently balanced on a knife edge. The business plan published this morning sets out the structure by which this will be achieved, including making operational savings of €1.1 billion over the period.

Irish Water has achieved reductions in numbers because of natural wastage and people retiring. One of the reasons was to reduce the waste or duplication of having 34 separate water authorities which were not of a similar high standard serving the people of the country. I understand that the business plan targets a 7% year-on-year efficiency in the inherited cost base culminating in €1.1 billion in savings, which is the equivalent of a 40% reduction by 2021. Irish Water has set out that it sees a sizeable reduction of up to 1,200 with a primary focus on the operational local authority staff engaged under service level agreements. Irish Water points out that it may be necessary to have a voluntary scheme in the course of those years.

There is no "may be" about it.

The numbers involved in operations within local authorities have reduced by 300 since 1 January last year.

What about the meters?

Irish Water estimates that a further 1,200 reduction will need to be managed through natural attrition, redeployment and a voluntary redundancy scheme. It set that out very clearly.

The Taoiseach used the word "fraud". The only thing that has been fraudulent is the premise upon which Irish Water was established. If the Taoiseach will not take my word for it, take EUROSTAT's word.

What about cryptosporidium?

Deputy, please.

EUROSTAT recognised that this was fraud. It stated that this was no commercial entity. It stated: "Considerable government control over Irish Water, in particular over board appointments and operations, including broad pricing parameters such as price caps for non-domestic users."

Failed the NCT.

It struck Irish Water down, stating:

The fact that Irish Water merely re-organises previously non-market activity carried out by local government, with local government assets being transferred to Irish Water and a large majority of Irish Water staff remaining local government employees.

Significant and continuous government funding and support to Irish Water, mainly in the form of operational grants and capital funding.

The lack of economically significant prices, concerning in particular the capping of fees for households...

For two years, the Taoiseach carried on the fraud in the Chamber of pretending that Irish Water would be off the balance sheet and have a dramatically expanded infrastructural expenditure.

Does Deputy Martin remember the supply in Galway?

The bottom line is that, by any objective yard stick, the Government has sunk €550 million in water meters that will never be used for the purpose for which they were originally contracted, that is, a payment system based on usage.

How does Deputy Martin-----

Of course they will be used.

Will the Taoiseach acknowledge this?

A Cheann Comhairle-----

A question, please.

It is a colossal waste of money.

Big Phil got away.

Deputy Martin is a right congressman. He should be quiet.

The Government employed an additional 700 staff on top of the number working in local authorities-----

I am sorry, but this is Leaders' Questions.

-----merely, in the words of EUROSTAT, to reorganise things. The Taoiseach stated that a cert would be achieved, but it could have been achieved without the establishment of Irish Water.

What about the previous supply in Galway?

The work on boil water notices was already on the way from local authorities. That is a terrible fantasy being presented by the Government.

Could the Deputy put his question, please?

Fantasy economics.

Some €800 million has been invested in a monster-----

Back to school.

-----that has not added any value for the taxpayer.

Big Phil got away.

The bottom line is that, in the next seven years and as even Irish Water and the Taoiseach admit-----

I am sorry, but the Deputy has gone way over time. Will he put his question?

-----the taxpayer, be it through motor tax or income tax, will pay for Irish Water's operational and capital costs.

Taxpayers already are paying.

There was no rationale for its establishment.

There was no water supply either.

It has been blown out of the water by EUROSTAT. It has been a costly and colossal waste of public money for which the Taoiseach stands indicted.

For 20 years Deputy Martin did nothing about it.

It all allowed for Denis O'Brien-----

Irish Water has failed the NCT.

The Government got it wrong. It should put up its hands.

Will Deputies settle down, please?

I am reminded of John McEnroe's comment: "You cannot be serious."

You cannot be serious. The Government has been flushed out.

Deputy Martin makes his contribution.

Some €500 million. The Government got it wrong.

It is a waste of millions of euro.

The Taoiseach is more interested in tennis than in politics.

He comes in here as a leader of his party and he says, "I propose that there be a €400 flat charge for water without any alleviation for anybody-----

Ball boy.

Yes, he is.

-----no discrimination at all", and then he shifts entirely and says-----

Denis's ball boy.

-----"Well, actually, a bit like St. Augustine, we do not want water charges yet but..." Now Deputy Martin wants to go back to having 34 local authorities. So much for the construction-----

That is what we have now.

That is what is there.

Deputies, please.

That is what EUROSTAT has stated that we have.

So much for the constructive suggestions that Deputy Martin says he put forward in the interests of the country.

Some €800 million later and that is what we have.

After €800 million, we have 34 local authorities.

I am sorry, but Deputy Martin had his say. Will he please allow for the reply?

That is the reality.

The Taoiseach does not believe EUROSTAT.

I listened to somebody who knows more about the mechanics of Irish Water than either of the two of us on the radio the other day. The water meters that have been installed have identified thousands of leaks of water between-----

None of that from them.

-----the boundary and the household. They have not all been fixed, but the equivalent given by the engineering section-----

There was a cheaper way of doing this.

The Government did not have to spend €550 million for that.

Deputy Ellis could blow them up.

-----was the usage of water by one of our entire counties. Now, Deputy Martin wants to go back to a situation where one has-----

There was a cheaper way of doing it-----

-----34 local authorities dealing with this.

That has nothing to do with it.

-----but the Government was trying to float Denis O'Brien.

That is what Deputy Martin wants to go back to. His financial projections are €2.8 billion out and he will not tell anybody what he is proposing-----

The Taoiseach will not tell me today about his proposal for 1,200 people.

-----as to how he is going to reconstruct that. The savings-----

He has not told me.

Please, we are over time.

Fear of the future.

Please, Deputy Adams is waiting in the wings.

I always like to speak without interruption.

That is a sobering thought.

At least he is not on a wing and a prayer.

I am sorry, but we are nearly four minutes over time.

The operational savings of having a single entity here are €1.1 billion in cost reductions.

No one believes that.

The domestic contribution out to 2021 is of the order of €1.3 billion and the capital savings, because Irish water is making these arrangements as a single utility, are about €500 million.

What about its debts?

That is €2.8 billion. That is the value that one is going to have in savings from setting up a single entity to provide high-standard water and wastewater treatment plants for the foreseeable future.

Change the record.

I disagree with Deputy Martin fundamentally on this. He used to be on the line of a single entity and then he changed for some inexplicable reason.

The Taoiseach has done a great deal of changing as well.

The first ballcock is gone.

Maybe it is because of the people on his right who want everything for nothing-----

Has Mattie sorted out the septic tanks?

-----and put forward the view that one does not have to pay for anything in this world.

I call Deputy Adams.

I-----

I do not believe that your name is "Adams".

What did you do with the fivers, Mattie?