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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 25 Mar 2015

Vol. 872 No. 2

Water Charges: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]

The following motion was moved by Deputy Ruth Coppinger on Tuesday, 24 March 2015:
"That Dáil Éireann:
notes:
— that from 1 April, one week from now, the first bills for water charges will start to be sent out to householders around the country;
— that water charges are another austerity tax arising from the bailout of major banks, bondholders, developers and the European financial markets system from their disastrous gambling in the property bubble in pursuit of super profits;
— that the imposition of water charges is the beginning of a process of the market commodification of water that would, if accepted, lead to the privatisation of water distribution and supply;
— that the Labour Party was elected on a platform of opposing the imposition of water charges;
— the massive opposition to the imposition of the water charges and to any steps toward privatisation of water supply;
— that opposition to the water charges has been graphically manifested since 11 October last year in the massive national and local demonstrations calling for the abolition of the charges and of Irish Water-Uisce Éireann;
— that this opposition was forcefully manifested in the result of the Dublin South-West by-election when candidates opposed to the water charges won 60% of the vote and the candidate advocating a mass boycott of the charges was elected to Dáil Éireann;
— that widespread protests are ongoing against the installation of unwanted water meters around the country; and
— that hundreds of local campaigns against water charges have been established the length and breadth of the country;
strongly condemns:
— the arrests following an anti-water charges protest in Tallaght in November 2014; and notes the jailing of four anti-water charges activists for peaceful protests against the installation of water meters and the widespread use of the Garda Síochána against residents opposed to water meters in their communities; and
— any move by the Government to make private landlords, local authorities or voluntary housing associations into collectors of water charges for Irish Water by obliging them to deduct the charges from tenants’ deposits or increase rents in cases where tenants are boycotting the charges;
demands:
— the immediate abolition of water charges;
— progressive taxation, including on wealth, corporate profits and financial markets’ transactions, to fund the upgrading of the water supply services including remediation of the leaking national infrastructure (for example, based on an effective corporation tax rate of 11 per cent in 2013, every 1 per cent increase would yield €388 million while the European Commission estimates a financial transaction tax would yield in Ireland between €490 million and €730 million per year);
— the abolition of Irish Water-Uisce Éireann, with responsibility for water services to be vested in democratic local authority structures involving national co-ordination, and unlike previously, adequate investment in water infrastructure to meet society’s needs; and
— a major grants scheme to retrofit homes with water saving devices and technology that would save billions of litres of quality drinking water being discharged needlessly into the wastewater systems each year; and
calls for:
— mass non-payment by householders of the water charges bills when they are delivered in April and May since the Government will have proved it is not prepared to abide by the clear wish of a majority to abolish the charges;
— water charges, and the demand for water to be in public ownership, to be made central issues in the forthcoming general election if not resolved pre-election; and
— local anti-water charges campaigns to discuss standing candidates in the general election opposing the charges and austerity and based on an advocacy of mass non-payment, of actively mobilising the opposition to these charges and for a real alternative to the parties of austerity."
Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
"supports:
— the establishment of Irish Water as a long-term strategic investment project to deliver the necessary water services infrastructure and quality of services required to meet statutory compliance and demographic needs;
— the management of our water resources effectively to ensure Ireland can continue to attract major overseas investment and employment; and
— the view that metered charging is the fairest form of water charging with benefits in proper management of this vital resource;
notes:
— that the Programme for Government provides for the introduction of a fair funding model to deliver a clean and reliable water supply which will involve the installation of water meters in all households;
— the introduction of water meters for households promotes the sustainable use of water and has been recognised by the OECD as the fairest way to charge for water services;
— the new funding model based on domestic tariffs and metered usage will allow for expanded investment and is aligned with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive;
— that the Government has introduced measures, which include the capping of annual charges at a maximum of €160 for single adult households and €260 for all other households until the end of 2018, that will provide clarity and certainty and ensure that water charges are affordable for customers;
— the announcement of the water conservation grant as a means of addressing water issues for all households on equal terms and which will reduce households’ outlay on water services;
— the prioritisation by Irish Water of the elimination of boil water notices and the fact that by April of this year over 17,000 people will no longer be subject to boil water notices;
— the Government’s intention to bring forward further legislative proposals to underpin the collection of charges; and
— that well over 200,000 jobs in Ireland are dependent on water-intensive processes including the agri-food, pharma-chem, ICT and tourism sectors, and therefore need a secure water supply; and
welcomes:
— the fact that the number of customers that registered with Irish Water is 990,000 out of a total of 1.237 million households that have responded;
— the progress with the roll-out of the domestic metering programme being delivered by Irish Water, with over 625,000 meters installed to date;
— the achievement of greater economies of scale in running water services by Irish Water, with €12 million in procurement savings alone achieved in the company’s first year of operations, in the context of an annual operating costs efficiency target of 7 per cent per annum set by the Commission for Energy Regulation;
— the increased capital investment in water and waste water services by Irish Water, with investment in the period 2014-2016 to amount to almost €1.4 billion, excluding metering and establishment costs; and
— the clear commitment given by the Government that Irish Water will remain in public ownership and the provision in the Water Services Act 2014 that will require any future proposal to change public ownership of Irish Water to be put to the people via a plebiscite."
- Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (Deputy Alan Kelly)

Deputies Mary Lou McDonald, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Dessie Ellis and Brian Stanley will share ten minutes. Is that agreed? Agreed.

I welcome the motion brought forward by colleagues in the Technical Group and I extend my party's support for it. If those in Government imagined that the campaign against domestic water charges had been holed below the watermark or was on the wane, they would have got the message last Saturday when people came onto the streets of Dublin in their tens of thousands to say emphatically to Government that we demand the abolition of domestic water charges. We do not want their reduction or mitigation but their abolition. We wish to see water secured as a human right and the provision of water services to be a public good, secured within the Constitution, while the monster that is Irish Water has to go.

These are not new messages but they have been reiterated time and again. The Government has sought to give the impression that it has listened to the people. It has not. I had wondered for a long time how the Government could be so astray on this issue but last night and yesterday the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, and colleagues from the Labour Party answered that question for me. The Minister described those of us who argued against water charges and, by extension, every person who stands against water charges as enjoying failure, wallowing in victimhood, imagining that there is a utopia in which everything is free. He categorised us all as people who believe we can have everything we want for absolutely nothing. The absolute cheek of him. What a cheap and nasty depiction of working people and their families the length and breadth of this country.

The Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, and his colleagues have demonstrated just how craven and cheap the Labour Party has become and the contempt in which they hold working people who know the value of €650,000 squandered on an advertising campaign and €85 million squandered on consultants and, furthermore, who know the value of more than €500 million on water meters. That was their money, their money.

I say again, in support of this motion, that abolition of these charges is what is needed and demanded, and that demand has not gone away.

Anyone looking at this State from the outside must be incredulous that the Government is pushing ahead with its intrinsically unfair and deeply flawed introduction of water charges despite the mobilisation of large swathes of the country in opposition. The Government seems unable to comprehend that these charges are unfair and that many ordinary citizens cannot pay them and certainly cannot pay for them twice.

This motion by Deputy Joe Higgins and others recognises water charges for what they are, another austerity tax. The motion focuses on the fact that Uisce Éireann is just a first step in the privatisation of one of the basic necessities of life and I, as a Dáil Deputy, believe that is the truth. In recent months we have witnessed the vilification of those who disagree with the Government's privatisation agenda and the jailing of water protestors. We have also heard the Government's threats to deduct water bills directly from wages and welfare payments, although I ask whether this would be either legal or feasible.

The Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, is anxious to sell the idea that there are those who will not and those who cannot pay. Minister, the overwhelming number of people who have not registered, whatever their previous economic circumstances, simply cannot pay. There can be no distinction based on assumptions. People are hurting today as never before and across all previous experiences, including the one-time self-employed with no entitlement to social protection.

What have we got? We have Uisce Éireann which seems to think it can function in an entirely opaque manner. There were no minutes from any high-level meetings with the former Minister, Phil Hogan. What kind of organisation, never mind a so-called accountable Government Minister, has the audacity to carry out its business in such a way? I call on the Government to finally listen to the people, drop these unfair charges and let us provide water and conserve it in a properly planned and progressively funded manner.

Having played my part in opposing the last water charge and holding then to a no-pay position, having watched and supported my mother, who was one of those targeted for prosecution for a non-payment stance at that time, I can tell the House this evening for absolute clarity that I have not registered and I will not pay. It is my view that it is time for people and for leaders in particular to take a stand on this most fundamental issue in the clearest way possible.

As Deputy Ellis is not present I will have five minutes. I want to be clear about our position on water. The first thing we need to do is to secure water services in public ownership. I brought a Bill before the Dáil recently to ensure that the control of water services into the future be kept in the hands of the Irish people, not whoever may be elected to this House, because the people are sovereign. Irish Water needs to be abolished as it is not fit for purpose and should be replaced with a slimmed down public body which is accountable to the Dáil, the Committee of Public Accounts and the Comptroller and Auditor General. The main functions of this body would be to oversee and co-ordinate capital investment in water services and to ensure water quality is improved and that there is compliance with the relevant environmental legislation. It could also work closely with local authorities who would be given back an enhanced role in developing and implementing water services plans in their local areas. All of that could have been accomplished by spending less than what the Government has squandered on Irish Water, its consultants, its metering programmes, legal advisers and PR.

Hardly a day passes without more scandal and more information coming into the public domain regarding the waste and incompetence that are the hallmark of the monstrosity called "Irish Water". The most recent one is that extra money is now needed for the meters. The Government has made a series of U-turns on registration dates and on the billing system as it dawns on them that hundreds of thousands of people will not pay their water charges.

However, alongside those U-turns, they continue to hold a threat over people that unpaid bills will be taken from people's wages or social welfare payment. One thing that is certain is the electorate will be unforgiving in particular to the Labour Party, which seems intent on committing political kamikaze by ripping up its pre-election promises not to introduce water charges.

The Government is also attempting to be clever about the issue of penalties and it is to be left hanging over people until after the election. That also means that people have the opportunity in the meantime to vote for a Government that will abolish water charges. If members of our party are re-elected to this House in numbers and we are part of the formation of the next Government, we are committed to abolishing water charges, as we have done in the Six Counties. We have also provided in our prebudget submission for this year from where the shortfall in terms of the collection of water charges would come. The Government has stated that it hopes to bring in €270 million. That is the billed amount. This is based on figures for domestic water charges from the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly. However, if there is a 40% non-payment, that amount would be reduced to €162 million. If we subtract from that the cost of the collection of water charges, which is €22 million, and the so-called water conservation grant costing €130 million, the net gain would be between €10 million and €20 million, which is fantasy economics. It does not make economic sense. Even the economic basis of the Government's demand is proving to be nonsense.

In regard to the delivery of Irish Water, to take the example of County Laois, improvement schemes that were prioritised by the local authorities have now been either pushed off or pushed to the back end of the list of capital works in terms of the pecking order. The Mountmellick network extension has been sidelined. The wastewater treatment plant in the town has been pushed off the list. The Portarlington network extension is no longer a priority. The Abbeyleix network extension to take in the Portlaoise Road area of the town has been eliminated. The wastewater treatment plant in Castletown, which is urgently needed, is not even on Irish Water's radar. Irish Water's plans for counties such as County Laois show that important capital projects are not even a priority. Irish Water is not delivering in County Laois or in any other county. As for the spurious claims that the meters will encourage conservation, as things stand, one can use a million litres of water a day or a week and still get charged the same as someone using a kettle full of water.

The Government may lose face by stopping this now but it still has the opportunity to do the right thing. It should go back to the drawing board. With regard to Phil Hogan and the other people who dreamt up this, this is a mess and it is a mess for the Labour Party in particular. The Government should abolish the water charges, stop this now, start again, put a better system in place and invest the money that is being squandered in fixing leaking pipes and in water mains rehabilitation.

The next speaker is Deputy Catherine Bryne who is sharing time with Deputies Twomey, Rabbitte and O'Donovan.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this motion tabled by members of the Opposition.

I want to begin by acknowledging how privileged I am to be one of the 166 Members of this House, elected by people of Dublin South Central, working as a legislator with a single goal in mind, namely, to make this little country of ours a better place to live in, now and into the future. I get very annoyed when I hear Opposition Deputies say they will not pay the water charge, supposedly in solidarity with their constituents. It is not because of the cost that these Deputies say they will not pay, they just do not want to pay, but they can well afford it. Have they forgotten that the duty of legislators is to abide by the law of the land and that this is the law of the land? They are undermining democracy.

They refer in their motion to a “majority” wanting to abolish water charges. I do not believe for a moment that they speak for, or represent, the majority. Some 990,000 out of a total of 1.237 million households have registered with Irish Water. What about the constituents who want to pay? An old age pensioner stopped me the other day to say that she believes it is her duty as a citizen to pay the water charge. A parent of a disabled child who wants to pay told me that she wants clean running water, a proper system and for her country to be the envy of other countries in that children in this country would be treated well and would have access to clean water.

I am often reminded of how precious water is when I switch on the television at home and see children in African countries dancing around a newly installed clean water pump in their village and the stark contrast of a young girl walking five miles to the nearest stream to get water-----

The desert is here.

-----and carry it back to her family in a plastic container with water that is not always suitable for drinking. This girl and her family know the true value of water. It is precious and gives life, but only if it is clean.

Here in our little country, most of us are privileged to turn on the tap in our kitchens and fill our glass with clean purified water. We do not even think of the journey and the process that water goes through before it comes out of the tap. I am fully aware that still today some people in this country do not have this privilege and cannot drink their tap water due to contamination.

The Environmental Protection Agency's report in 2013 clearly stated that more than 23,000 people, on 20 public supplies, were on boil water instructions; there were 121 "at risk" supplies out of 978 affecting almost 940,000 people; and in 44 urban areas, sewage was being discharged untreated, causing a major risk of pollution in our rivers and lakes. Those were shocking figures but they will be addressed by Irish Water. Irish Water is committed to removing the boil water notices through new and better water treatment plants in the affected areas. Many of the Deputies know where those areas are and I do not have to announce them. The bottom line is that serious investment is required to carry out the necessary repairs and water treatment processes right across the country. This has been ignored for many years. We are the only country in the OECD with no domestic water charges.

Fianna Fáil under Jack Lynch abolished water rates in 1977, and today we have more than 800 km of pipes in Dublin city alone which are 100 years old or more and they are in a deplorable state. The rest of the country’s network is in a similar state. The national leakage rate of water into our soil, rivers and gardens is more than 49%. That is a shocking figure in this day and age. I am amazed when I go to the supermarket to see people buying crates of bottles of water and some of those people, whom I know, refuse to pay their water bill.

Our attitude to water has to change in this country. It is not free. There are many people who understand why water charges are necessary and they want to comply. The Government’s revised water charges package, which was announced last November, provided clarity on this issue. Customers will pay fixed charges until the end of 2018. There is a simple and more affordable charging structure in place of two capped charges with a charge of €160 for a single person household or €260 for a household of two or more persons. Water conservation is also encouraged, and households have the opportunity to pay less than the capped bill. They can also avail of a €100 water conservation grant. Those who want to pay but are in financial difficulty will be able to avail of an easy-pay option and instalment plan, as is available for many other utility bills we pay on a regular basis. Those who do not register and do not pay will not be able to avail of the €100 water conservation grant and will be liable for a late payment fee.

Furthermore, the Government has given a clear commitment that Irish Water will remain in public ownership. I will repeat that as it is very important: the Government has given a clear commitment that Irish Water will remain in public ownership. It included a provision in the Water Services Act 2014 that will require any future proposal to change public ownership of Irish Water to be put to the people. That is an important provision.

As for the demands laid down in tonight’s motion by Members of the Opposition, and their calls for mass non-payment, I do not accept they are representative of the majority of Irish people. Irish people have never been found wanting when it comes to paying their way. I hear that on the doorsteps on a daily basis particularly from old age pensioners.

They say to me that they are citizens of the country and it is time they paid for water. I will not support this motion.

Ireland has the cheapest water prices in Europe, cheaper than Bulgaria, Latvia and Greece. Every country in Europe, rich or poor, right or left, charges for water. Water charges stop waste and protect access to clean water. Sinn Féin must stop misleading the Irish people and stop saying it does not support water charges. Sinn Féin supports water charges in Northern Ireland.

It supports the installation of water meters in Northern Ireland and pays bonuses to Northern Ireland water bosses. By saying it does not, it is saying it is part of a pretend Government in Northern Ireland and that, when Mother Goose in Westminster stops laying the golden eggs, Sinn Féin fails to govern properly. It is happy to put the economic future of people in Northern Ireland at risk when it perceives that things are not going its way. That is a poor negotiating pathway and does not show much credibility in what it is trying to sell, a message to the people of all of the island. Sinn Féin Members should be honest and say they support water charges, because they do. Anything else is hypocrisy.

They are installing water meters in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin supports the legislation in that regard and is supposed to be in government in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin should stop misleading the people of the country by saying it does differently.

We will be in government on this island and there is no doubt about it.

The difference with being in government in the Republic is that there is no Mother Goose to send us £4 billion a year to sort us out.

That is outrageous.

We must live within our means and be responsible in what we say to the people of Ireland. We must be responsible in how we act in government.

Deputy Liam Twomey must think the people are his Mother Goose.

With regard to the nine Deputies who have signed the motion, I do not know what they have to offer to the Irish people apart from demonising the Garda Síochána. This surprises me when it comes from Deputies Finian McGrath and Tom Fleming. Why would they support the claptrap in this motion? I am all for candidates standing in the next general election but we must consider what they will stand for. Will they stand for increasing taxes, getting rid of jobs in SMEs, family businesses and multinationals and cutting funding for schools and hospitals? From where will the money come?

The motion suggests they want to send back responsibility to local authorities, where there were problems with crumbling infrastructure and leaks and the management of water. Then, these Members suggest they will come up with mythical millions but have no idea about the consequences of their actions, nor are they prepared to say so. These Deputies stand for nothing because all they offer the Irish people is to send the responsibility back to the local authorities and repeat the past seven years. That is all that is on offer.

It is becoming clear the Irish people do not have an alternative Government in the Opposition. What it is successfully doing is exploiting people's anger about what happened over the past seven years and the hardship they are going through. The Independent Deputies offer nothing to the Irish people in the line of an alternative Government; there is nothing to show what they would do. The motion offers nothing but fantasy economics. I will not blame the ideology of the Deputies because what is worse is that they are trying to mislead people. We can cope with different ideologies but I have been hearing that the Independent Deputies would have burned the bondholders and that the €200 million was borrowed for the banks. I am not using exact figures so that Members can understand what I am saying. Approximately €50 billion of the €200 billion relates to the banks and the other €150 billion relates to paying pensions, social welfare payments, and the salaries of gardaí and nurses. What alternative do the Deputies opposite offer?

They are lying to the people of Ireland about what they say they will do. They want to put people through what they went through over the past seven years once again. I want the Independent Deputies to answer this question. What will they do if it all goes wrong in the coalition of the hard left, Syriza if people speak Greek?

It is in the motion.

The only alternative is cuts to old-age pensions and social welfare payments. How will they fund schools and hospitals? It is not in the motion if that is what Deputy Paul Murphy is pointing at. That is for discussion on another day as soon as the Independent Deputies start talking the truth and stop misleading people.

The manner in which the far left and Sinn Féin are exploiting the austerity fatigue of ordinary people on the water issue is disgraceful and contrary to the public interest. The fact that, for over a year now, their humbug and hypocrisy is being stimulated by the public service broadcaster requires examination. Mischief-making for the Government of the day is a time-honoured indulgence of the media and is part of a healthy democracy. However, under section 114 of the Broadcasting Act 2009, the public service broadcaster has a duty to "entertain, inform and educate". RTE's coverage may well have entertained but no sensible taxpayer or citizen could argue that it has informed or educated on the water issue. Where, over the past 18 months, were the programmes explaining why the public water system is on a knife edge, why our rivers are being polluted, why public health is threatened and our capacity to attract industry undermined, and the options available to source the enormous investment needed to make it fit for purpose? RTE has acted as a recruiting sergeant for those who have taken control of, and are manipulating, the water protests. There must be people in RTE who know that Ireland, alone in the EU, does not have water charges. They must know that our water system is derelict and, in some places, a hazard to public health. They must know that raw sewage from 44 towns is spewing into our rivers. They must know that modern-day economic development often relies on a secure supply of water. They must know how damaging it is for business and jobs if a tourism hub like Galway cannot serve safe quality water. After three decades of neglect, they must know that we can no longer continue with 34 different authorities. Above all, they must know that, to access the huge investment needed, we need a state-owned commercial utility to source the money necessary without undermining the State's finances.

It is clear that RTE relies on a source inside the water company, who seeks to ground a natural bias with distorted information, half-truths, bits of e-mails and internal papers. Last Sunday's earth-shattering, highly promoted, press stopping revelation was that there were unminuted meetings between the former Minister and the company chairperson. If RTE were to broadcast similar exposés on every time a State company chairperson had an unminuted meeting with the Minister, myself included, over the past 30 years it would fill the schedule until the end of the year. If I did not know better, one might conclude that the lopsided coverage of the water issue derives from a decision of the RTE board to strangle Irish Water at birth. We can all carry a chip on our shoulders for what has happened to our country.

We are all entitled to an opinion as to why it happened and we can all be bitter about the erosion of living standards. However, that does not justify abandoning the usually high standards practised by the public service broadcaster.

Following the pied pipers of the Anti-Austerity Alliance will only leave people with debts they need not have incurred. As was the case with bin charges, the pied pipers in question will move on to their next campaign. In the former instance, of course, they left homeowners with accumulating debts and a privatised bin collection system. The Minister, Deputy Kelly, has gone a long way towards meeting the concerns of homeowners whose living standards have been eroded since the financial crash. The average charge for water on the neighbouring island is £540 per household. Fianna Fáil previously committed to a charge of €400 per household. I hope the Minister can come up with a mechanism which will enforce compliance and permit a distinction to be made between those who genuinely cannot pay and those who will not pay.

All my political life, I have defended public service broadcasting and argued that it is a public good. The treatment of the water issue has regrettably fallen short of what licence-paying citizens should reasonably expect.

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the motion. I agree with the previous speaker with regard to coverage of this issue. At this morning's meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications, the issue of bias on the part of the public sector broadcaster was raised by members on all sides who have concerns with regard to that matter. The House would do well to heed the words of the former Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to the effect that this is a very serious issue and that it should be treated as such. I expect that the incumbent Minister will examine the issue in the context in which Deputy Rabbitte has raised it.

Having served on a local authority from 2003 to 2011 and having witnessed the condition of our water infrastructure following years of under-investment, I am glad that a programme of works and capital investment has finally been put in place. Such a programme is badly needed throughout the country, particularly in the context of facilitating the recovery that is already well under way.

Prior to this debate, the House engaged in a discussion on the future of the dairy industry and the importance the latter will have in terms of the recovery in rural areas. It is noticeable that not a single Member of the Opposition, either from a political party or an Independent, was present for that debate. Following on from that, it must be noted that the motion before the House was drafted by Members who represent Dublin constituencies. It is in the names of Deputies Higgins, Coppinger, Paul Murphy, Clare Daly, Boyd Barrett and Finian McGrath. Not one rural Deputy signed up to it.

What about Deputy Tom Fleming?

His name is not attached to the motion.

This strikes to the heart of what this matter is all about. I am not surprised that the rural Deputies who are members of the Technical Group-----

What about Deputy Wallace? With those two Members on board, both Wexford and Kerry are represented.

-----decided to distance themselves from the motion. It will be interesting to see how many of them turn up to vote.

The Deputy should check the latest version of the motion.

As I stated on previous occasions, this Administration is doing something for people who have provided their own water for generations in the absence of any help from either central or local government. They will receive a small conservation grant and this will go towards paying for the cost of maintaining group water schemes or private wells. In the rush to get rid of Irish Water, the Opposition is also trying to remove the only assistance that remains for many people in rural communities. I refer to the water conservation grant, which will be used by those to whom I refer to replace lamps, service their pumps or as part of their contribution to their group water scheme charges. Of course, they have paid those charges for generations. It is at this point that those in opposition seem to fall asunder in respect of this matter. They come at this matter from an urban perspective and they fail to recognise that people who live in rural areas, including those in my constituency, have paid for their own water for decades. These individuals know the value of water in the context of how it is used for domestic and industrial purposes. They pay for water because if they did not do so, they would not have access to any supply. That is the reality in which those to whom I refer operate.

Most people, including those in Sinn Féin, know that water must be paid for and that is why, as Deputy Twomey correctly pointed out, 35,000 water meters were installed, at a cost of £13 million, north of the Border at the behest of the Northern Ireland Executive. Did anyone from Sinn Féin raise a clamour in this House to the effect that the latter was a waste of money? The answer is "No". Up until the Dublin West by-election, Sinn Féin was actually in favour of the consumer paying for water. However, those in Sinn Féin were outflanked by the candidate who was eventually elected, Deputy Paul Murphy, and so they reversed engines and decided to jump onto the anti-Irish Water bandwagon quickly because they were of the view that there were votes in it for them.

Not at all. The consumer always pays for water.

That was a completely cynical reversal of Sinn Féin's policies. It was fine for the party to be involved in establishing Northern Ireland Water, paying executives and putting in place a charging system. As I have stated on previous occasions, it is also fine for Sinn Féin to pay for septic tanks in Northern Ireland to be desludged but it does not want to pay for the desludging of such tanks in Cavan or Monaghan. Those in Sinn Féin will charge for water services in Fermanagh but they will not charge for them in Cavan.

It will be very interesting to see what those in Fianna Fáil are going to do later. After all, it was they who gave us water charges in the first instance. Fianna Fáil settled on a charge of €400 per year and it was responsible for creating the economic mire out of which we are still trying to drag ourselves. It will be interesting to see what the party which signed us up to water charges is going to do. Then there are the Independents. Obviously, some of them did not sign up to the motion. A number of them wanted to amend the Constitution in order that provision might be made in it in respect of Irish Water. The names of those Members are also absent from the motion.

The Opposition construct that is the motion before the House is nothing other than an example of absolute and blatant naked political opportunism.

It is a fantasy.

I do not know whether it is the season of "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" but it seems the leprechauns are hoping that there is a crock of gold at the end of the rainbow and that if they dig big enough holes in their back gardens they might discover something.

Deputy O'Donovan should keep digging.

The reality is that every commodity one uses must be paid for. Up until now, the water consumed by Irish people was provided in a very haphazard way by local authorities. We all know this to be the case because many of us were members of those authorities in the past. We are aware that sewage was pumped into surface water and that wells were contaminated. God only knows the amount of fuel and other chemicals that have seeped into lands and affected surface water in Deputy Ó Caoláin's constituency as a result of diesel laundering taking place across the Border. People in the area could possibly be consuming water that has been tainted. Now we have in place an entity that will be able to deal with this matter once and for all.

What is wrong with giving people who dug their own wells or developed their own group water schemes €100 each year to defray some of the costs involved? Why are those on the benches opposite so anti rural Ireland? This is the first time an Irish Government has done something to provide potable water for people who live on family farms or whose dwellings are located on the sides of mountains or in other isolated areas. These individuals are obliged to dig their own wells and sometimes the water supply from them can be contaminated with iron or be full of lime. As a result, they must put in place a treatment system or use a water softener. The Deputies opposite want to take the €100 a year to which I refer away from them. They want to dismantle the one contribution that has ever been afforded to these people by the Government. It is no wonder that not a single Deputy who represents a rural constituency would put his or her name to this motion.

I am sure Deputy Healy will encourage people in south Tipperary and those in Borrisoleigh and Roscrea to claim the €100 when the time comes to do so. I am also sure farmers in west Wicklow and east Carlow have already contacted Deputy Donnelly's office in order to discover how they might obtain the €100 conservation grant. Are those opposite seriously stating that they are going to tell people not to claim the grant because it is Government money? It is easy for Deputy Joan Collins and the other Members who represent constituencies in the capital to tell people in Dublin, who have services coming out of their ears, not to claim the grant. Deputy Pringle might well laugh but he represents a constituency in what, in geographical terms, is one of the largest counties in the country. He is aware of how difficult it is for a homeowner in County Donegal to ensure his or her property passes a percolation test. He may laugh but people need to desludge their septic tanks and they will welcome the €100 the Government is going to provide to them. I do not think the staff in the Deputy's office are going to send out letters to people in Donegal not to claim the €100 being provided by the Minister, Deputy Kelly. Perhaps he will do so, however.

We sent them out last night.

If he does, perhaps he might supply us with a copy of the letter. I am sure it will state "Stand your ground and do not claim Alan Kelly's €100". I will believe that when I see it.

Irish Water was probably established ten years too late. The pollution of surface water and underground aquifers has placed Ireland in a very vulnerable position. Investment is coming into the country at a very steady rate at present.

We know better than any other country the extent of our reliance on foreign direct investment for jobs. However, the people opposite who brought forward this motion want to put us in with Greece. They want us to be in the same position as a country that is trying to negotiate its way out of an even worse crisis than we faced and which is now realising it is not all about kicking the table and turning it over. Syriza is not anti-water. It has not announced plans to burn water bills outside Greece's national Parliament. If anything, it is probably going to increase charges further.

I do not see the new Prime Minister of Greece saying to Chancellor Angela Merkel that on top of his country's existing economic problems, he plans to give everyone free water. If no other country in the European Union is doing it, why should we be any different? Country people who have provided their own water for generations know its value and they welcome that they are finally getting some recognition for their efforts. Sinn Féin can install 35,000 meters north of the Border at a cost of £13 million, put water charges into a deep freeze until after the Northern Ireland Executive elections, get rid of 20,000 public servants, cut welfare and bring down the Northern Ireland Executive just to avoid being unpopular. Fianna Fáil are trying to forget that it wanted to levy €400 on every household. The reality is that most people know water has to be paid for. While it falls out of the sky freely, it has to be pumped and treated. It has to be chlorinated and fluoridated, and people have to work in those treatment plants. It also has to be treated at the other end. The Government has gone a long way towards meeting people's concerns. We are in a far better situation than heretofore but that bears no resemblance to the scenario that a couple of Deputies opposite, who could not even bring their own with them, would have us face.

Rabbitting on twice in a row.

There is a lot of politics in the Chamber this evening, as well as a lot of emotion, as one would expect in a debate on water charges. It is clearly going to be a key issue in the next election. However, I would like to revisit some of the facts because the numbers tell us pretty much everything we need to know about Irish Water.

The money raised from water charges will at most cover the cost of raising that money. According to my calculations, it will not even cover those costs. The net amount that will be raised from Irish households is approximately €90 million, and the cost of getting that amount of money will be more than €90 million. Irish households are being charged to cover the cost of charging them. Not one cent paid by any household in Ireland will pay for one drop of water, one replacement for a lead pipe or one brick in a new reservoir. The money the Government is seeking to take from us will cover the cost of getting that money. All the talk about people needing to understand that water is not free and that we have to upgrade the system is well and good but not a euro of the money raised will be invested in the system.

Even if it cost nothing to charge people for water because all the water meters were installed by volunteers with donations of concrete and shovels, all the people in the call centres worked for nothing in buildings constructed by philanthropists and An Post agreed to send the letters for free, it still would not be necessary to charge anybody for water. We know from the Irish Water capital expenditure programme that the only investment is an extra €200 million being invested in the system. These are Irish Water and Government numbers. This entire exercise is about investing an extra €200 million per year in water. Prior to this nonsense, Irish water cost approximately €1.2 billion to deliver. When Scotland brought its dispersed systems together, it managed to reduce operating costs by 40%. Let us be conservative and say we are only capable of achieving half of what Scotland saved. Even if we only reduced the cost base by 20% after bringing the dispersed utilities together and running it properly with new technology, we could pay for the entire additional investment in water with €40 million left over.

Not a single penny raised from an Irish household will be used to upgrade the infrastructure. Even if that money could be raised for free, it would not be necessary to raise it because all we have to do is reduce the operating costs by €200 million and invest that money in the system. That would solve the problem. There would be no water meters, protests or people coming into my office to ask me how they will manage to pay for water. There would be no threats about turning people's water down to a trickle or taking money out of people's wages or social welfare payments. None of that would be necessary had this project been managed properly.

Deputy Rabbitte suggested that the lack of minutes in numerous meetings between the then Minister, Phil Hogan, and Bord Gáis are not relevant. Of course they are relevant. This entire exercise has been pursued in secrecy. The Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform still cannot get evidence for the implications of off-balance sheet borrowing.

Last year most rational people in Ireland realised that Irish Water was a disaster. That has not changed. Yesterday the Taoiseach stated to the House that having high quality water and sewerage schemes requires investment on a major scale and cannot be done under the discredited system we have had for the last 40 years. If this Government is so concerned about how sewerage is managed or the state of our water table, perhaps it should have done something about it. During its four years in power it has done less than any other Administration for at least the last 20 years.

Last year I asked about 13 different towns and villages in County Wexford from which raw sewage was flowing into the sea or to rivers. These were Arthurstown, Ballyhack, Duncannon, Wellington Bridge, Clonroche, Ballycanew, Campile, Kilmore, Duncormick, Curraghcloe, Oylegate and Ferns-Camolin. I was told to write to Irish Water to ascertain its plans. The company told me it was considering and planning for these places, and expressed the hope that I was happy with its answer. Yesterday the Minister, Deputy Kelly, stated that 385 major capital projects are underway nationally. Perhaps he can clarify whether "underway" means they are at design stage, planning stage or under construction. Under no circumstances are 385 projects under construction. The Minister phrased his comment in a deceptive manner. In Wexford it has been decided to work on one project soon. There are no plans for the other towns and villages even though raw sewage continues to flow into rivers and the sea.

We were made aware of the huge problems that existed with sewage treatment in Ireland even before this Government came to power. The Europeans were drumming from the hilltops about it.

Why did the Government not ask them if it could borrow money at 1.7% and put a few billion euro into our water and sewerage system? The sewerage system is archaic and does not function very well and our water table is severely damaged and under pressure. How many septic tanks have been tested and what has been done about septic tanks that are polluting the water table, poisoning us and increasing cancer rates here? That is the truth of what is happening. The Government has done bugger all about that. How many septic tanks in Ireland have been tested? Most septic tanks do not work properly, but the Government has done bugger all about them. I challenged the former Minister, Phil Hogan, about that here, but he was more or less just codding the Europeans on the issue.

The Deputy should not use inappropriate language in the House.

I am sorry, but it is hard to keep a cool head sometimes. One of the Deputies on the Government side said that rural Deputies did not sign this motion. I am from Wexford and I did. We do not have good drinking water in Wexford and there is significant raw sewage going into our rivers and the sea and we are not happy about that. The situation has not improved in the slightest in the past four years.

There are huge problems between Irish Water and the Wexford local authority. The local authority has refused to give Irish Water the data it has asked for because it believes the transfer may not comply with data protection rules. Irish Water has asked for the names and addresses of all the tenants in local authority property and the local authority has refused to provide that information because the Data Protection Commissioner could not confirm that the handing over of this information is within the regulations.

Another major problem in Wexford is that some 120 estates have applied to be taken over, but Irish Water is blocking this deliberately because this does not suit it. Irish Water is a disaster and the sooner it is scrapped, the more money the State will save.

The mishandling of the setting up of Irish Water is affecting the whole economy, particularly over the past 12 months. Consumer confidence has taken a battering, due to the prospect of additional charges and taxes following a raft of financial burdens over the past six years. Many people just cannot afford more pressure on their household budgets.

The revelation made in the early stages of the setting up of Irish Water regarding huge bonuses for Irish Water staff angered and enraged almost all consumers. There is no benchmarking system in place and that is an oversight that should have been rectified at the start. Irish Water is an overstaffed super quango and it appears it has up to 2,000 additional staff for whom there is no need. This inefficiency will raise the cost of water for householders. On top of all this, we hear weekly of exorbitant fees being paid out to consultancy bodies.

Rather than being concerned with conservation, the establishment of Irish Water is purely a revenue raising exercise. At the end of 2014, the consumer confidence index fell. The catalyst for this fall in confidence seems to have been the prospect of water bills in the new year and the significant uncertainty regarding the future and medium-term to long-term charges for water. Due to this uncertainty, fewer people are saving. They are discouraged by the thought that water charges will eat up their savings. The see a bleak outlook for the future and envisage higher and increasing additional taxes. A study carried out by the Irish League of Credit Unions stated that eight out of ten families feel their household budgets will face pressure and strain in the coming years due to the initiation of water charges.

Water metering is the main priority of Irish Water, to the exclusion of the required emergency work to deal with contaminated water supplies and the replacement of deficient pipelines that leak millions of gallons of water daily. For example, Kerry County Council has several miles of faulty pipelines in several areas of the county. These intermittent supplies are a nuisance and an inconvenience to householders. They also bring financial demands, as in many cases consumers must seek an alternative supply of domestic water. Many of them must buy bottled water from their local shops. There is an immediate need of an investment of at least €20 million to carry out the required upgrading.

I commend the replacement of lead pipes in certain estates throughout the country. Piping in a huge estate in Tralee, St. Brendan's Park, has been replaced in the recent past. However, there is a need to renew plumbing in housing following the replacement of the piping and people need assistance to help with that. This applies all over the country. People have been drinking polluted water for the past 50 or 60 years and the system is not right yet.

I was amused to hear the Labour Party Deputy, Deputy Eric Byrne, refer to Deputy Adams as a "sponger" in the Chamber yesterday. Just last weekend, I spent a day clearing out years and decades of political and council papers that had built up in the parlour of my house and happened to come across an election leaflet from the early noughties from the bold Deputy Byrne. I read it and under the bold heading, You Know Where I Stand, Deputy Byrne pledged to oppose not just water charges, but all service charges. This raises a question in regard to his political position. We know where he stands now. I should, perhaps, put his election leaflet on Facebook so that people can see clearly the change he and many Labour Party Deputies have made on this issue.

Calling someone a "sponger" is mild compared to what Labour Party councillor, Dermot Lacey, called water charges protesters at a recent Dublin City Council meeting. He referred to them as "fascists", a charge he refused to retract when challenged. Connolly and Larkin must be spinning in their graves at the antics of some of those who have usurped the honourable traditions of the Labour Party. They are nothing short of a disgrace.

Now we have the spectacle of a Labour Party Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, threatening those who cannot and will not pay the charge with a hell and high water attitude. We now see the Government retreat of last year clearly as what we said it was, a tactical step back in the hope that mass opposition to Irish Water and the charges would weaken. We said at the time that the Government could not be trusted. We know it has lowered the charge as a tactic, as a Trojan horse. We also know, as the man under the bridge knows, that once charges for water have come into effect, the only way they will go is up, whether that is in 2019, 2020 or 2021. The Government cannot be trusted either on the issue of privatisation. Its promises on this issue are about as trustworthy as Deputy Byrne's campaign pledges.

Some Members on the Government side of the House may be in denial regarding the scale of the opposition to water charges and Irish Water, even after last Saturday's magnificent Right2Water demonstration of unity, solidarity and determination. However, I believe the majority of those on the Government side are well aware that the Government will face ongoing mass demonstrations, ongoing protests against metering and massive non-payment of the charge. I state clearly that I will not pay the charge. The Minister, Deputy Kelly, is heading up a campaign of misinformation, intimidation and fear. That will not work. A charge is not a tax and Irish Water does not have the draconian powers given to Revenue on the property tax. Irish Water is a utility. Also, the Government cannot take hundreds of thousands of people to court in order to get attachment orders. It would be impossible to carry out such a task.

Threats will be counter-productive although there is no doubt that they may scare some people. However, I believe the only thing they will achieve will be to make people more angry, more united and more determined to smash these unjust and unfair water austerity charges.

I thank the Socialist Party for bringing this motion to the House and I will be voting in support of it.

I will paraphrase Martin Luther King when he said that if a law is unjust then citizens have a duty to oppose it. That is the case with the imposition of water taxes on the citizens of Ireland. It is not only that the tax is unjust per se, in that it is a double taxation, but it is also the view held by very many of the protesters that the policies pursued by the Government are also unjust. The campaign against water taxes is a culmination of the widespread opposition to the household charge, the property taxes and the insistence by the Government that the Irish people must pay and be responsible for the financial crisis that has engulfed them over the past seven years.

What enrages people even more is that the Government insists on trying to intimidate them into complying with this tax. The Government may have been successful with the property tax but I believe it will not get away with its campaign of intimidation about the water taxes.

The people have seen through the Government's lies and diversions about the need for Irish Water and the imposition of charges and they know that in years to come, the tax will only increase, leading to bills of many hundreds of euro for citizens across the State. The announcement in the past days by a Minister that he intends to bring forward legislation to fast-track court appearances for people who refuse to pay the tax, sounds very much like a Minister who knows that he will not be around when that comes to pass. It shows what this Government is about when it wants to set up special courts to deal with citizens who do not pay the water tax in comparison to how quickly it moves to remove the loophole to facilitate banks in repossessing houses and how it took four years to bring any of the bankers before the courts. They still end up getting away with causing this crash. When we look around us we see very many of the same people moving into positions of power again on the boards of banks and developers being funded by NAMA to get back into business again in order to benefit from this recovery.

The Government amendment refers to meter charging being the fairest form of charging. The Government claps itself on the back for having capped the charge to ensure, as it says, that the charges are affordable. This is an acknowledgment that when it ultimately moves to metered charges, they will not be affordable for very many people. This is the point we who are opposed to this tax have been making all along, that there is a question of affordability and a question of fairness.

The Government likes to give the impression that Irish Water is a panacea for all those feckless county councils who did not invest in infrastructure and that this is what has left our water system the way it is. The fact is that the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government controlled the expenditure of county councils at every step along the way. The reason for the infrastructural problems is because the Department ensured that projects could not progress.

Before being elected to this House I worked in the water services in Donegal County Council in the Killybegs treatment plant. The plant was opened in 1994, designed to meet 1990 requirements for water production and where the investigations on the provision of a new plant started in 1973. At every step of the way the Department delayed and slowed down the process. The fact that there are problems with infrastructure is not the responsibility of local authorities but rather it is the responsibility of governments, this and previous governments.

The Government amendment makes much of the fact that there has been procurement savings as a result of the establishment of Irish Water. I know for a fact that in Donegal since the arrival of Irish Water, the cost of hiring in jet cleaners for sewer problems has doubled since the national procurement process came in. Where are the cost savings?

The Government makes much of the fact that the metering will highlight the leaks in the system. Irish Water has identified savings of 6% in accounted-for water from domestic metering. When the metering programme is finished and when all the leaks identified have been fixed, there will still be more than 40% of unaccounted-for water in the system. This is an extremely expensive non-solution to a problem, where they are looking in the wrong place for the leaks.

The introduction of Irish Water has been a fiasco and citizens are right to oppose the Government and the introduction of the tax. The only way they can oppose this unfair tax is by refusing to pay it.

Those whom the gods seek to destroy they first turn mad. That sentiment comes to mind with regard to the bizarre contribution of a former Minister this evening. His story seems to be that it is all RTE's fault. Whether that is an acknowledgment that former Workers' Party people are no longer running RTE or whether it is more sinister, a blatant attempt to intimidate RTE to stop reporting the truth, I am not quite sure, but it certainly is bizarre. It is something that has arisen tonight and in line with something we heard last night from his colleague, the Minister, Deputy Kelly, who told us that those opposed to these water charges want everything but do not want to pay for anything. How dare the Minister say any such thing.

This is the same Deputy Alan Kelly who stood in the general election in 2011 in Tipperary North. He knocked on every door in that constituency and asked every voter to give him their number one vote so that he could make sure that Fine Gael would not impose water charges on this country and on the people of this country. This is the same Deputy Kelly, now deputy leader of the Labour Party, who stood in that election on a manifesto which opposed the introduction of water charges. It is the same Deputy Kelly who supported the infamous - or famous, whichever one wants to call it - Tesco advertisement which warned the people that Fine Gael had water charges in store for them. Fine Gael were going to impose water charges on this country while he and the Labour Party were going to stop it. This is the type of hypocrisy from people like the Minister, Deputy Kelly and former Minister, Deputy Pat Rabbitte and others in the Labour Party. It it the type of hypocrisy that has brought politics and politicians into disrepute over the years.

I say to Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, who spoke about rural Deputies, I certainly have not registered, I will not register and I will not be paying this unfair, unjust double tax. This is an attempt to make ordinary people, ordinary families, pay for a recession in which they had no hand, act or part in creating and it is a method of ensuring that very wealthy people who have earned huge incomes, assets and profits during the course of this recession, have been allowed to get off scot-free.

Last night the Minister, Deputy Kelly, also indicated - perhaps inadvertently - where these water charges are going. He said that England and Wales have charges of €540. That is where these charges are going - up, not down. They will be going up in the very same way as the refuse charges. In my county the refuse charges were introduced at £5 punts and they are now €350.

It says everything about this issue and the water charges debacle that the Minister, who was the chief architect of this complete fiasco, the former Minister, Phil Hogan, was then rewarded by getting what is probably the most senior political position in Europe that this State can confer on an individual. Before he left office this Minister who was rewarded for that fiasco, was busy having secret unminuted meetings with Irish Water to plan the debacle and the fiasco that has ensued. The Government is not concerned, apparently, about these unminuted meetings when they led, by anybody's definition, to a disaster and a fiasco That says it all. Why were the meetings not minuted? What were they discussing?

What they were discussing was how they could obfuscate, spin and lie about the reality of water charges and Irish Water to undermine, defeat and divide the opposition that was already developing and has since assumed massive proportions. They were discussing how they could undermine the opposition, mass protests and boycott that were coming down the line as people took to the streets in unprecedented numbers. We also saw what the meetings were about in the bizarre contribution made by Deputy Rabbitte in which he attempted to intimidate RTE. It was interesting that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, made a special appearance for Deputy Rabbitte's contribution and two journalists miraculously appeared in an otherwise empty Press Gallery, having clearly been tipped off by Deputy Rabbitte that he was about to make a statement on RTE. His speech was a deliberate attempt to intimidate the public broadcaster. Similarly, Deputy O'Donovan played the rural-urban divide in his effort to obfuscate and blur the key issue.

Attempts have been made to tarnish the anti-water charges protest movement through associations with violence. The Government is doing everything to obfuscate but the issue is simple - it is not fair to charge a millionaire, a pensioner, a person in receipt of a welfare payment of €188 per week and a worker on the minimum wage the same amount to access a basic human right. Under United Nations conventions, water is a basic human right and it is unfair and fundamentally unjust to charge everyone the same to access it. People know it is wrong that the amount of money a person has should dictate whether he or she has access to a basic human right. They also know from their experience of bin charges and so forth that the Government is lying when it states the charges will stay low. The charge will rocket and any waivers or concessions given now will disappear, just as happened in the past. People know, as Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party knew at the time, that when charges are introduced, privatisation follows, as it did in the case of bin charges.

Rather than acknowledging the legitimate right of people to oppose water charges, the Government wants to distract from the substantive issues and instead divide, undermine and besmirch the overwhelming opposition to water charges. All its plans and spin will not succeed because the rebellion against water charges will continue and the nationwide boycott will prevail.

l acknowledge the robust and challenging contributions to the debate from Deputies on both sides in the past two days. While we may disagree on many issues regarding water sector reform, it is important to recognise the passion displayed on this key issue across the floor. This is encouraging as it demonstrates the strategic importance of water to the proper functioning of a modern economy and society. I have been deeply impressed by the ability of most Deputies on the benches opposite to foretell the future and I hope they will continue to use their crystal ball theories.

Unfortunately the passion of the debate has not been matched by solutions or constructive ideas from the Opposition. We have heard much bluster about non-payment, resistance, protests, court cases and imprisonment. This type of messaging will not rectify the problems with our public water and wastewater systems, nor will it address the high levels of leakage, inadequate wastewater treatment levels or problems with water quality and supply in certain areas.

Consolidating and building on the reforms made to date is the only viable path to lifting restrictions on drinking water, ensuring people in 44 towns and villages no longer see raw sewage discharged into local rivers and lakes and preventing towns and cities from running out of water or becoming dependent on water treatment plants in breach of drinking water regulations. Deputies should imagine the demonstrations that would take place if demand for drinking water in Dublin were not met in future. Hoteliers, representatives of the tourism and retail industries and householders would protest on the streets about the lack of adequate drinking water.

As Irish Water continues to make progress under the various initiatives outlined in detail by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, last night and a more sustainable funding model which includes domestic water charges is implemented, we will create a more resilient, quality public water system of which we can all be proud.

Many Deputies raised the issue of unpaid water charges and the pursuit of arrears. I will comment on this issue up front. The Minister will soon bring proposals to Government on this matter to expand upon existing provisions in water services legislation. It is not tenable that those who pay should be disadvantaged in any way by those who can pay but refuse to do so. This would also place the burden of the cost of upgrading and improving a deficient water system on the next generation.

The Minister has always insisted that Irish Water distinguish between those who want to pay but are unable to do so and those who refuse to pay. Those who want to pay but are in financial difficulty will be able to avail of easy pay options and instalment plans, as is the case with all other utilities. Those who do not register or pay will not be able to avail of the €100 water conservation grant and will be liable for a late payment fee.

I will outline some of the benefits accruing from Irish Water's new approach to the provision of water services. Irish Water's asset management approach that underpins infrastructural investment is already realising considerable benefits in project costs and timeliness of delivery. Examples of projects where the company's approach to capital investment will make real savings compared to previous local authority plans include the Ringsend waste water treatment plant which will generate a saving of €170 million; the greater Dublin area drainage project which will save €30 million; the Cork city water supply scheme which will generate a saving of almost €22 million; the Navan and mid-Meath water supply scheme which will create a saving of almost €10 million; and the Kerry central water supply which will generate a saving of almost €9 million.

The Minister of State's time has concluded.

I am sorry I was late for the debate. I was visiting Coolock, one of the communities at the heart of the resistance to water charges. Having returned to the House, I am sorry I did not stay because the reality of life in working class communities in Dublin, districts and towns and villages of this country is a million miles away from some of the nonsense that has spewed from the Government benches. It does not give me any pleasure to point out that most of this nonsense has emanated from the mouths of Deputies from the Labour Party, which has become the whipping boy of the Government. Where are their Blueshirt Fine Gael colleagues?

The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government led the charge last night, while other Labour Party Ministers who are not even in that Department took up the challenge today. I did not hear Deputy Rabbitte's contribution but I am aware that his stunt has successfully grabbed the headlines in the media coverage of this debate. The Deputy will rue the day he made his comments. While he may believe he can compare people to rats following a pied piper, his statement belies a lack of understanding of the real battle that is taking place in communities around the country. People are not following anybody but listening to their own instincts and an understanding born of direct experience that unless they make a stand on this issue, they will be faced with monstrous bills in future and the real prospect of the public water supply being privatised.

I refer to the conduct last night of the Minister when he got up and lectured people. He talked about how people had to understand the need to pay for things. How dare he propose to put that message to people? Irish people know that. They have paid for public services through the central taxation system. They have paid through the highest form of indirect taxation in Europe, which means the poorest people pay the most. That the Government has decided to embark on being Robin Hood in reverse by using people's taxes to pay the debts of others that never were the responsibility of ordinary people is an absolute and utter disgrace. Where does the Government think the public water supply came from in the first place? It came off the backs of taxpayers. Where does the Government think the reduction in leakages in areas such as South Dublin, which council was able to implement double-figure reductions, came from? It came from investment by the State. The Government talks about savings being made, but is it not aware that savings being made in Ringsend are being made not because of efficiencies but because the plant is cutting out best practice environmental considerations and is doing only half the job promised? The Government's figures and information do not stack up.

It is not the only point on which the Government is contradicting itself because, on the one hand, one is supposed to believe everybody is coming over to its point of view and that people are happily signing up and see the logic in this scenario. On the other, the Government is moving into vicious forms of threats and intimidation because it knows that it has lost the battle for the hearts and minds of ordinary people in this regard. Threatening letters are being sent to warn people in the voluntary housing sector in organisations such as Clúid, for example. I was contacted by a group of tenants from Drogheda this morning, including a family of six in a two-bedroom apartment, a Vietnamese woman in a basement and a family in another dwelling in between, who had received letters telling them the terms of their tenancy meant they had to pay this charge. How, when local authorities are facing challenges in Europe over the condition of local authority houses, are they meant to go into the business of collecting and be water charges collectors also? It is an absolute impossibility.

The reality is the Government cannot rule against the will of the people and that it does not have the will of the people in this regard. I believe it knows this-----

We have 65% of it.

Perhaps the Labour Party has given up the ghost and in the belief it will have none of its Members returned, it might as well throw in the towel because if the Government continues in this way, they certainly will not.

We have 65% of it.

Minus the group water schemes.

It is a question of equality.

A constituent rang me this morning who had rung the Minister's office this morning, had been told by his staff to eff off and had had the telephone hung up on him.

People in rural Ireland pay for water.

Please, Minister.

Methinks the poor Minister doth protest too much.

Go on out of that.

I am sorry; watch the clock, please.

The reality is that the people are off their-----

Go and talk to people in rural areas where they have water schemes.

Please, Minister.

She should note that talking people down does not impress anybody and is akin to the antics of the office of the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly.

The Deputy is-----

Will the Minister, please, stop?

Yes, a Cheann Comhairle.

I do not need to say anything. The Minister of State has made the point for me.

The Deputy's time has expired.

People are off their knees on this issue. They are loving it and Government Members will be the ones who will lose out.

The former Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, decided to come into the Dáil tonight, having alerted the media that he was going to make an important statement on Irish Water. In his long career we have seen him hawk himself around the political world from Official Sinn Féin to Sinn Féin The Workers' Party to the Workers' Party to New Agenda and to the Labour Party.

And Democratic Left.

A Deputy

And Fine Gael.

Did I leave anyone out?

With each new move, he shed whatever bits of left principles he might once have had, to be replaced with a sneering cynicism which Members saw oozing from him tonight as he decided to divert attention from the hatred of ordinary people in society for the Labour Party because of its continuing imposition of this hated water tax with a cynical attack on RTE. The reality is that in recent years RTE has provided an ongoing platform for the Revenue Commissioners, various Ministers for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Government spokespeople and latterly Irish Water for every move they have made to try to impose one unacceptable austerity tax after another, from the household tax to the property tax and now the water tax, as the record will show. The people of Dublin South-West will not be impressed by the former Minister's antics, as they showed devastatingly clearly in the result of the Dublin South-West by-election last October.

The Christian feast of Easter approaches. It is a movable feast set for the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. The Government's deadline for householder registration with Irish Water is also a movable feast. It is much more movable than Easter, however, and last night, with some puffing of his chest, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government came into the Dáil Chamber and announced no less than the fifth registration deadline of 30 June. At first sight, it appears to have something to do more with the sun than the moon because the first deadline was around the autumnal equinox. It was then moved to around the winter solstice, but that deadline then disappeared like the weak rays of the winter sun at Newgrange and we moved in the direction of the spring equinox. Lo and behold, we now have a date somewhere beyond the summer solstice. Is there any logic to this? I have worked out that there is a law governing the movable feast that is Irish Water registration and it runs something like this. It is the first occasion on which the Minister with responsibility for Irish Water gets to speak after the latest registration figures showing stubborn resistance to registration by householders after tens of thousands of the same householders have poured onto the streets of Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland to demand the abolition of water charges. In passing, some might say that in the case of the Labour Party persisting with water charges, it might have something to do with the full moon, but being a scientific socialist, I will not really comment on that.

The most recent flexible registration date is 30 June. It, of course, is another attempt to try to frighten householders into registration. The Government is playing fast and loose with figures and the truth. The Minister claimed on Monday's edition of RTE's "Morning Ireland" that 1,230,000 householders had registered. Moreover, he claimed that 130,000 of these had done so in the previous four weeks. However, we checked and Irish Water stated that on 27 February, 229,389 had registered by then. According to these figures, 600 or 700 people have registered in the past month, not 130,000, but why should the truth get between a Minister and his propaganda?

The water charge is utterly rejected because it is a bondholder tax and part of the odious bailout of the banking system, the bondholder system and the European financial markets system that puts the burden on working-class people, ordinary middle and low-income workers and poor people. In the motion we have tabled we have laid out examples of where, if there was a different political complexion to the Government, it could look to the very wealthy, the major corporations and a financial transactions tax to obtain strong funding for investment in Irish Water and infrastructure in general, recreate and reboot the economy, generate employment for the people and so forth.

The IMF seems to be the only ally that the Labour Party and Fine Gael have for the water charges. It has the audacity to suggest that the political situation has settled down and that the water charges issue appears to be becoming less heated with the November 2014 steps to lower fees and the setting of a cap.

We can see what exploded onto the streets of Dublin last Saturday, however. The Government will face a mass boycott because people are not fooled. They know that water charges will go towards €1,000 for a family of four or five as soon as the pressure is off. It is odious to hear Government Deputies trying to set ordinary people in rural Ireland against their urban counterparts. The reality is that Dingle and Lispole, which I know well, are on the public water system, as is Donegal. Tens of thousands of people have been on the streets in every corner of rural and urban Ireland.

The call that resounds is, "We won't pay". That is the sentiment of millions of ordinary people. Those seeking the abolition of water charges should support that boycott. In 1994, 1995 and 1996 there was a people-power campaign of which I was the chairman. Based on a mass refusal to pay, mobilisation and political pressure, it forced the abolition of the hated tax at that time. It was the only time since the land annuities of the 1920s that a mass boycott - in the earlier case it was by small farmers - forced out an unjust tax.

The Sinn Féin rank and file members support the idea of a boycott. Deputy Adams is wrong-headed to attack the so-called ultra left, which in reality is the anti-austerity alliance. He says that Sinn Féin will not call for a boycott. Picture this - in April, May and June the bills will start to arrive. Well over 50% of our people oppose this tax and do not want to pay it. Their strongest weapon is the mass boycott, so that is what those seeking the abolition of water charges should say. That is their strongest weapon so they should exercise it. In that way we can force out this hated tax in a short period of time. That is what we did in the 1990s and one can imagine what level they would be at now if we had not won then.

This matter will haunt the Government right up to the election if it persists on its present course. If some 35% or 40% of householders are boycotting, it means the water charges will not survive the general election. That is because at four out of every ten doors Government candidates will be greeted with enormous anger since the occupants will be part of the boycott. Many others may have paid reluctantly but they will also be angry.

The Labour Party should remember what happened to Fianna Fáil and the remnants of that party who were clinging to whatever was left after the last general election. There will not even be remnants if they persist. If the Government moves to try to bring in repressive measures, as the Minister of State has warned us about tonight, I can tell her that Labour will not even have a remnant of a parliamentary party to cling to.

I am sorry Deputy but I must put the amendment now. Please resume your seat.

The Government is utterly betraying the aspirations and opposition of ordinary people.

As 90 minutes have expired, I must now put amendment No. 1 in the name of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.

Amendment put:
The Dáil divided: Tá, 60; Níl, 38.

  • Bannon, James.
  • Barry, Tom.
  • Breen, Pat.
  • Buttimer, Jerry.
  • Byrne, Catherine.
  • Byrne, Eric.
  • Cannon, Ciarán.
  • Carey, Joe.
  • Conlan, Seán.
  • Connaughton, Paul J.
  • Coonan, Noel.
  • Corcoran Kennedy, Marcella.
  • Costello, Joe.
  • Coveney, Simon.
  • Creed, Michael.
  • Deasy, John.
  • Deenihan, Jimmy.
  • Doherty, Regina.
  • Durkan, Bernard J.
  • Feighan, Frank.
  • Fitzgerald, Frances.
  • Fitzpatrick, Peter.
  • Flanagan, Charles.
  • Gilmore, Eamon.
  • Griffin, Brendan.
  • Hannigan, Dominic.
  • Hayes, Tom.
  • Heydon, Martin.
  • Humphreys, Kevin.
  • Keating, Derek.
  • Kenny, Seán.
  • Kyne, Seán.
  • Lawlor, Anthony.
  • Lynch, Ciarán.
  • McCarthy, Michael.
  • McGinley, Dinny.
  • McNamara, Michael.
  • Maloney, Eamonn.
  • Mitchell, Olivia.
  • Mitchell O'Connor, Mary.
  • Murphy, Dara.
  • Nash, Gerald.
  • Neville, Dan.
  • Nolan, Derek.
  • O'Donovan, Patrick.
  • O'Dowd, Fergus.
  • O'Mahony, John.
  • Phelan, Ann.
  • Phelan, John Paul.
  • Rabbitte, Pat.
  • Ring, Michael.
  • Ryan, Brendan.
  • Stagg, Emmet.
  • Stanton, David.
  • Tuffy, Joanna.
  • Twomey, Liam.
  • Varadkar, Leo.
  • Wall, Jack.
  • Walsh, Brian.
  • White, Alex.

Níl

  • Boyd Barrett, Richard.
  • Broughan, Thomas P.
  • Collins, Joan.
  • Colreavy, Michael.
  • Coppinger, Ruth.
  • Daly, Clare.
  • Donnelly, Stephen S.
  • Dooley, Timmy.
  • Ellis, Dessie.
  • Ferris, Martin.
  • Fleming, Tom.
  • Halligan, John.
  • Healy, Seamus.
  • Healy-Rae, Michael.
  • Higgins, Joe.
  • Keaveney, Colm.
  • Kitt, Michael P.
  • Lowry, Michael.
  • McConalogue, Charlie.
  • McDonald, Mary Lou.
  • McGrath, Finian.
  • McGrath, Mattie.
  • McGrath, Michael.
  • McLellan, Sandra.
  • Martin, Micheál.
  • Murphy, Catherine.
  • Murphy, Paul.
  • Ó Caoláin, Caoimhghín.
  • Ó Fearghaíl, Seán.
  • Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
  • O'Sullivan, Maureen.
  • Pringle, Thomas.
  • Shortall, Róisín.
  • Smith, Brendan.
  • Stanley, Brian.
  • Tóibín, Peadar.
  • Troy, Robert.
  • Wallace, Mick.
Tellers: Tá, Deputies Joe Carey and Emmet Stagg; Níl, Deputies Ruth Coppinger and Paul Murphy.
Amendment declared carried.
Question put: "That the motion, as amended, be agreed to."
The Dáil divided: Tá, 60; Níl, 38.

  • Bannon, James.
  • Barry, Tom.
  • Breen, Pat.
  • Buttimer, Jerry.
  • Byrne, Catherine.
  • Byrne, Eric.
  • Cannon, Ciarán.
  • Carey, Joe.
  • Conlan, Seán.
  • Connaughton, Paul J.
  • Coonan, Noel.
  • Corcoran Kennedy, Marcella.
  • Costello, Joe.
  • Coveney, Simon.
  • Creed, Michael.
  • Deasy, John.
  • Doherty, Regina.
  • Durkan, Bernard J.
  • English, Damien.
  • Feighan, Frank.
  • Fitzgerald, Frances.
  • Fitzpatrick, Peter.
  • Flanagan, Charles.
  • Gilmore, Eamon.
  • Griffin, Brendan.
  • Hannigan, Dominic.
  • Hayes, Tom.
  • Heydon, Martin.
  • Humphreys, Kevin.
  • Keating, Derek.
  • Kenny, Seán.
  • Kyne, Seán.
  • Lawlor, Anthony.
  • Lynch, Ciarán.
  • Maloney, Eamonn.
  • McCarthy, Michael.
  • McGinley, Dinny.
  • McNamara, Michael.
  • Mitchell, Olivia.
  • Mitchell O'Connor, Mary.
  • Murphy, Dara.
  • Nash, Gerald.
  • Neville, Dan.
  • Nolan, Derek.
  • O'Donovan, Patrick.
  • O'Dowd, Fergus.
  • O'Mahony, John.
  • Phelan, Ann.
  • Phelan, John Paul.
  • Rabbitte, Pat.
  • Ring, Michael.
  • Ryan, Brendan.
  • Stagg, Emmet.
  • Stanton, David.
  • Tuffy, Joanna.
  • Twomey, Liam.
  • Varadkar, Leo.
  • Wall, Jack.
  • Walsh, Brian.
  • White, Alex.

Níl

  • Boyd Barrett, Richard.
  • Broughan, Thomas P.
  • Collins, Joan.
  • Colreavy, Michael.
  • Coppinger, Ruth.
  • Daly, Clare.
  • Donnelly, Stephen S.
  • Dooley, Timmy.
  • Ellis, Dessie.
  • Ferris, Martin.
  • Fleming, Tom.
  • Halligan, John.
  • Healy, Seamus.
  • Healy-Rae, Michael.
  • Higgins, Joe.
  • Keaveney, Colm.
  • Kitt, Michael P.
  • Lowry, Michael.
  • Martin, Micheál.
  • McConalogue, Charlie.
  • McDonald, Mary Lou.
  • McGrath, Finian.
  • McGrath, Mattie.
  • McGrath, Michael.
  • McLellan, Sandra.
  • Murphy, Catherine.
  • Murphy, Paul.
  • Ó Caoláin, Caoimhghín.
  • Ó Fearghaíl, Seán.
  • Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
  • O'Sullivan, Maureen.
  • Pringle, Thomas.
  • Shortall, Róisín.
  • Smith, Brendan.
  • Stanley, Brian.
  • Tóibín, Peadar.
  • Troy, Robert.
  • Wallace, Mick.
Tellers: Tá, Deputies Joe Carey and Emmet Stagg; Níl, Deputies Ruth Coppinger and Paul Murphy.
Question declared carried.
The Dáil adjourned at 9.25 p.m. until 9.30 a.m. on Thursday, 26 March 2015.
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