Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy has today urged Government to accept an amendment tabled by her to the Water Bill 2017. The amendment seeks to make Irish Water answerable to the Comptroller and Auditor General regarding its finances.
Deputy Murphy has received a reply to a parliamentary question which indicates that a subvention of €753 million will be paid to Irish Water for 2017 alone. Deputy Murphy said it is vital that given the amounts of public monies being pumped into Irish Water that it be subject to the same scrutiny as other public bodies.
Speaking today Deputy Murphy said:
“As Irish Water was initially set up as a Semi-State body it was not included under the remit of the C&AG however given the findings of the Oireachtas Water Committee, Irish Water is now a fully publicly funded body and as such it must be subject to scrutiny by the C&AG for audit and investigation purposes.”
“People have very good reason to question how Irish Water uses public monies given some of the stories of excessive waste that have emerged when it comes to their spending decisions and as such the Social Democrats believe it is vital the C&AG is given full oversight of the body and its accounts. The Water Services Bill 2017 does not make provision for this and as such I’ve tabled this amendment and would urge the Government to accept it.”
ENDS
17th October 2017