Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The imposition of domestic water charges on top of all the other charges the Government has imposed on people is part of an agenda of privatisation shared by Fianna Fáil. The manner in which the company was established and is being managed and in which the unfair water charges have been imposed has been chaotic and farcical and the Taoiseach misses the main point, which is that the vast majority of people cannot pay. It is not that they will not pay; they simply cannot pay. It has emerged that struggling families will be charged €180 for a call-out to fix leaking pipes. The Taoiseach has dismissed that and said he does not know where that came from. I checked before I came to the House that he told me on 7 October no bonus would be paid. The noises from the Government all appear to be about scapegoating the board and senior management team in Irish Water.

No one was clearer about the creation of the company than the former Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd who said: "It's a mess and it's the Government's mess." Will the Taoiseach accept that, as an entity, Uisce Éireann is toxic and that it cannot in its present form be left with the responsibility for the deliver of water services in this State? Does he further accept that Uisce Éireann must be fundamentally and radically reformed into a single public utility that acts in the interest of citizens? Will he acknowledge that the message he got in the by-elections and on the streets of Dublin is that people are against what the Government is doing because they cannot afford what it is calling on them to do? Fianna Fáil is belatedly calling for a suspension of water charges. Does the Taoiseach accept that he can do nothing other than abolish this second domestic water charge? People cannot pay it and his Government should acknowledge that.

See this speech in context