Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Peaceful protest in this country is perfectly legitimate but it is not legitimate to stop people from going about their duty and their work. The gardaí have had to be called in a number of cases where much more than peaceful protest took place. In other locations around the country, I have had evidence that where work started in some estates, people suddenly arrived to protest. I have had evidence of residents actually coming out and asking these people to remove themselves. It seems as if there are some groups who travel from location to location to protest. As the Deputy said, they are entitled to protest but they are only entitled to protest legitimately and they cannot interfere with and should not prohibit people going about their lawful work.

Irish Water is designed to bring quality water infrastructure for the country and that should not be interfered with. There is a process that the law applies for everybody here. As I said, in many other parts of the country contractors have installed water meters without anybody appearing, and they have done a first class job. It is all part of the capacity to provide high quality water for the people of our country and for business for years to come.

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