Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----that the Oireachtas does not matter. The bottom line is that there was no debate on this. There never was a debate on the establishment of Irish Water or the legislation that underpinned it because all Stages were rammed through the House in about three or four hours.

Deputy Cowen has written to Irish Water to seek a meeting but he was surprised to learn that the Labour Party had already met the company. Deputy Cowen told me that he had been trying to get a meeting with them for the last two or three months, yet an internal Fine Gael committee is hauling them in. It seems that Irish Water has to be accountable to the Fine Gael Party but not to anybody else. That is the bottom line.

Can we get an assurance from the Tánaiste? At the time, the previous Ministers, the former Deputy Hogan and Deputy O'Dowd, were all dodging parliamentary questions. They said it was not a matter for them to answer parliamentary questions in here.

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