Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister knows, it was only in the past few days that we were given any information about the lucrative contracts awarded by Uisce Éireann. I wonder if he understands the outrage among ordinary taxpayers over this rip-off to facilitate a system being put in place that will gouge more taxes to pay more bond holders through taxing the water rather than fixing the pipes with the €500 million the Minister has allocated.

I wish to ask the Minister specifically about BlackRock asset management and Fortress Investment Group, which are huge hedge funds, venture capitalists and vulture capitalists.

Did the Minister meet any of these players in the financial markets? They were players in the crisis that developed as a result of the considerable speculation carried out by such companies for the ten or 15 years before the crash. They also cleaned up during the crash. If the Minister met them, what was the subject of those meetings?

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