Debate contribution: NI Water: Funding and Governance

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 29 April 2025.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

29 April 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

NI Water: Funding and Governance

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4922295

Read the official Assembly record

Text

We have to be clear that the major obstacle to economic, environmental and social progress in the North is mostly inaction and ineptitude by the Executive. The current state of our water network does not help. Poor water infrastructure is, as we have already heard, preventing homes from being built, poisoning our drinking water and leaking sewage into vital natural resources such as Lough Neagh. Each year, NI Water dumps millions of tons of untreated sewage into Lough Neagh and other waterways across the North. Seemingly, it cannot — or, rather, will not — be held to account for those actions. The fault does not lie with the workers in NI Water; it lies with the inaction of the Executive, who have starved our public services, including NI Water, of funds to the point of collapse. Last year, the Assembly passed a motion calling on the Infrastructure Minister to consider the mutualisation of NI Water. However, mutualisation is just privatisation by another name. As I said at the time, that is nothing more than a red herring that is designed to distract us all from the fact that for years the Executive have failed to give NI Water the investment that it so badly needs. Any review of NI Water's funding and governance that tells us that the only way that we can build social homes is by seeking private finance or introducing water charges is selling a lie. Ordinary people are fed up with rates hikes, out-of-control rents, rising bills and an endless cost-of-living crisis that never seems to touch the wealthy. Making wealthy developers pay for investment in the network could be a fairer alternative but only if the costs are not passed down to people who are buying homes to live in. That means that the Executive must make sure that there is protection for renters and people with mortgages. So far, they have failed to act for both. Privatisation and mutualisation are not the solutions to NI Water's dysfunction. We have seen how that has played out in England. Directors and shareholders have paid themselves billions in dividends while refusing to invest in infrastructure. Only 14% of English rivers meet the standards required for "good" ecological status. That should be food for thought. Welsh Water has been mutualised, and Welsh people pay over £500 per year for their water. I doubt anybody is advocating for that example to be followed, though maybe some people are. Welsh Water continues to illegally dump waste due to the state of its failing infrastructure. We have only to look to Britain for ample evidence that water charges and privatisation do not guarantee investment or clean good water. People Before Profit will never support the quiet privatisation of our water infrastructure or the imposition of water charges on working-class people. We need to bring NI Water back in-house and allow it to be run as a properly funded public body. For that reason, I am happy to support the motion and Sinn Féin's amendment.

503 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:31 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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