Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)

Thank you Ceann Comhairle. On behalf of the Technical Group, I would like to join with Deputy McDonald and the Taoiseach in expressing our sympathy to Deputy Doherty on the death of his father.

Yesterday the Cabinet moved to end the confusion which had existed about these water charges, following a report in The Sunday Times last Sunday. We should greet that with a certain amount of optimism, but having heard it, to be honest I prefer the confusion to the clarification. We now know a few very limited things about what will happen with water charges. We know that the Government, in its wisdom, has decided to create another State monopoly with a free hand to charge consumers a completely unspecified amount of money at its own discretion.

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