Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When the Minister introduced Second Stage of the Bill he made clear that the intention of the expert commission was to try to take the heat out of the debate and enable us, to use the Minister's words, to have a rational conversation about it. Many of us were sceptical about the intention of the commission but were willing to take the Minister at his word. Having said that, the fact that some of us took the time to submit detailed proposed amendments to the terms of reference and did not even receive a formal response from the Minister's office suggests we may not have been right to take him at his word.

What most concerns me about Mr. Joe O'Toole's comments is not that he has personal views - he is entitled to his views and the Minister could not have appointed a person resident in this State who did not have views on the matter. - but that Mr. O'Toole, in his Newstalk interview, made a particular comment which amounted to much more than his personal view on the issue of water. Speaking on the commission and the job the Minister has given him, he stated:

It is a political exercise. It is a democratic exercise. The reality is we are trying to resolve a problem which has emerged from the democratic process. People have 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.

My interpretation of Mr. O'Toole's remarks is that he has acknowledged that a majority of the Deputies elected in the general election want to abolish water charges but the purpose of the commission as he, its chairperson, understands it, is to continue some form of charge by putting enough sugar on it to allow the Dáil, which technically has a majority against water charges, to swallow it, in other words, to vote in favour of a water charge. If that is his understanding of his job as the chair of the commission, it is deeply disturbing. While I am not asking the Minister to interpret what Mr. O'Toole meant by his remarks, I believe the meaning is clear. My concern, therefore, is not that the chairman has a particular view but that he is describing his understanding of his function of chairing the expert commission as one of identifying how to get water charges through the Dáil, albeit in a different form.

I have two questions for the Minister. Is this is an appropriate way for the chairman to describe his role and that of the expert commission? Is it the Minister's view that the chairman's position is tenable? While I was willing to give Mr. O'Toole the benefit of the doubt - I did not call for him to resign yesterday but asked that he withdraw the comment he made - the comments he made this morning and this afternoon have made matters worse. If it was the Minister's intention to take the heat out of this issue, unfortunately the person he appointed as chairman of the expert commission has done the opposite. This has undermined any confidence among those of us who are sceptical but want to be constructive and engage with the commission that this is genuinely an independent and impartial exercise. I am interested in hearing the Minister's response to those two specific questions.