We do not need a rainy day fund. We need a sunny day fund because the current heatwave and the warnings from Irish Water about water shortages have yet again exposed the completely decrepit state of Ireland's water infrastructure and the disastrous consequences of decades of underinvestment by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil-led Governments. In particular, the current crisis has been exacerbated by the decisions from 2010 onwards, first by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party and subsequently continued by Fine Gael and the Labour Party, to cut the capital investment programme for fixing the water infrastructure by €50 million per year. We have now reached the point that 49% of water is lost through leaks from the mains infrastructure, rather than household wastage. It is particularly infuriating that spokespersons for the parties that imposed the cuts and austerity on the water investment programme have the cheek to blame householders for the problem when they know that the expert commission the Government set up to look into water usage in this country concluded categorically that there was no evidence of excessive household wastage and that household usage in Ireland is lower than that of Great Britain, which has water charges. I repeat that usage here is lower than in Britain. That is what the Government's expert commission concluded. We use 110 litres per day per house while in Great Britain, which has water charges, average household usage is 140 litres per day. Why do Government spokespersons and representatives of parties that slashed the investment programme for water infrastructure persist in blaming householders? The reality is that householders are reaping the bitter fruits of the Government's decision to cut investment in fixing our decrepit and broken water infrastructure. The evidence is still there. There has been a leak on Kildare Street for two weeks. The Tánaiste should go outside and take a look at it. On Friday, I managed to have a case featured on national radio involving one street in Dún Laoghaire where residents reported water leakage and water shortages in January. Irish Water did not arrive to look at the problem until June and has said it cannot fix it until August.

That is the consequence - leakage of 700 million litres a day, which is wasted because the Government has failed to invest in fixing our broken water infrastructure. Why does the Tánaiste not just admit it?

Sometimes it is hard to know where to start with the Deputy on this issue.

Try disputing the facts then.

Thank God we now have a single water entity that is trying to manage the challenges we face nationally.

It is doing a really good job.

It is actually doing a reasonably good job.

It is needed in Ballyhooley.

The reason we have so many leaks in our pipes is because we had more than 30 different entities managing water infrastructure in the past, many of which were under-resourced in terms of what they needed to do. What we now have is a single entity that is planning for future national water usage needs. It is managing a difficult weather situation right now and will continue to do so over the summer months. It has, for the first time, a coherent plan to reduce leakage significantly from 45% leaks to 38% leaks by 2021. It has a capital investment programme which is secure, thanks to the political agreement in this House. Therefore, for the first time, we have a proper, coherent, organised and funded plan to fix Ireland's water infrastructure once and for all. We have a plan to deal with shortages in Dublin, which would not have been solved by the local authorities in Dublin on their own because this is going to require a national approach to bring water from the Shannon to the eastern parts of the country and to Dublin in particular, as well as to many counties surrounding Dublin.

The approach for which the Deputy would advocate is to localise everything in terms of decision making, planning, expenditure and so on and we know the results of that policy, namely, leaks all over the country and the inability for co-ordination between counties and nationally.

It is under-investment.

I would like to thank Irish Water for the work it is doing in very difficult circumstances, the partnerships it is developing with organisations such as the IFA and other organisations and the partnerships it has with local authorities. This allows it to concentrate on the areas that are feeling the most water stress and shortage right now in order to ensure the resources, experience and skill sets in Irish Water, which come from economies of scale, can give the response that is necessary as quickly as possible.

Second, nobody is blaming householders. What we in government are doing is asking the country to respond in the way it did during other extreme weather circumstances earlier in the year, when communities came together and supported one another. They should be doing that now as well to ensure that neighbours take other neighbours into account in how they use water over the coming weeks, given the lack of rainfall and the obvious shortages that will come from that. That appeal from Government is something I hope communities, individual householders and businesses will heed.

Every day households in this country use 300 million l of water. Does the Tánaiste know how much leaks out of the system every day? It is 700 million l of water.

Does the Deputy know how much has been saved in the last year? He should quote the whole truth.

I have to hand the Irish Water business plan. This is the plan of the Tánaiste's crowd and what it shows is a drop in investment from 2010 onwards, first instigated by Fianna Fáil and the Greens, then by Fine Gael and Labour.

Has the Deputy heard of the economic crash?

The Irish Water business plan refers on several occasions to the decades of under-investment. That was done by Fine Gael-led and Fianna Fáil-led Governments. Have things improved slightly since the Government abandoned the wild goose chase of water charges? Yes, because €250 million a year that was being put into water meters that do not fix leaks has now been redirected to upping the investment programme on water infrastructure, although it is still way short.

The time is up.

Irish Water testified in this House in April that it needs €18 billion of investment to fix our water infrastructure.

The time is up.

The Tánaiste said the leakage will be down to 38% by 2020. That is pathetic.

The Deputy must conclude.

That does not deal with the problem. We need to significantly increase investment in water infrastructure, which the Government has failed to do.

The Deputy should have gone into Government.

The Labour Party did not do it.

We need to increase the investment in water infrastructure. I am glad, therefore, that the Deputy focused on what is needed and not on the argument he has been making for years, which is that we should have stuck with the old system of local authorities doing it all alone. I hope that even Deputy Boyd Barrett sees the logic of moving to a single utility which can deal with the economies of scale and develop the skill sets that come from that and plan nationally for how we move water around this island to ensure we do not have the kind of water shortages with which we are threatened.

Underinvestment, Tánaiste.

The pressures we feel today remind us of the logic of the need for excess usage charges. If people are blatantly wasting water, is it fair that their neighbours should pay for it?

There is no evidence of that, so why does the Tánaiste keep saying it?

Is it fair that during a summer-----

The Tánaiste said there was no evidence earlier.

Will Deputy Ellis please allow the Tánaiste to respond?

He is contradicting himself.

Generally, when I get a response like that, it is recognition that the Deputy's own approach is fundamentally flawed.

The Tánaiste is draining us.

Time is up.

Sinn Féin's approach to water charges has been inconsistent and a joke, quite frankly.

Hear, hear.

It would certainly not deal with the serious challenges the country faces this week, next week and later in the summer. Once again, I thank Irish Water for its work and the co-ordination it is providing. I reassure Irish Water that the Government will continue to fund the capital infrastructure that is needed. To the public, I note that while the vast majority of people are enjoying the good weather, it brings pressures we need to respond to collectively as households and businesses.

It sounds like a general election.