Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This is a serious issue because the impression given by the new coalition was that an independent commission had been established with an independent chair. People can have personal views and, as the Minister stated, we all have personal views on issues. However, the chairman, in advance of the commission's establishment, has expressed strong views that are opinionated and biased in the sense of being very much on one side of the argument. How can anyone interpret his words in any other way? He stated:

People voted in a certain way. Leinster House is not prepared to grasp that particular nettle so we have to find a solution that will have enough sugar on it to make the medicine go down easily.

I understood this to mean the Dáil is not prepared to recognise that 70% of Deputies were elected on an anti-water charges platform. I assume that making the medicine go down means the continuation of water charges. Does the Minister propose to allow a person who believed it was in order to express these views to chair the commission? Mr. O'Toole has given his honest views but if the Minister expects anybody to take the so-called new politics seriously, Mr. O'Toole must go. I am also putting it up to Fianna Fáil that it needs to make this clear because its support is the other leg of the table in this arrangement. Regardless of what spin is put on this issue, nobody can unsay what Mr. O'Toole said. He is completely biased and wants water charges to be maintained by making them more palatable.