Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One of the remarkable outcomes of the economic crisis which was inflicted on the Irish people, as well as on the people of several countries in Europe, has been that those who caused the crisis by adhering to the bible of deregulation, privatisation and liberalisation, and who followed the diatribes of Reagan and Thatcher, won even though they failed our people because their huge gambles in Las Vegas banks were paid back by citizens across Europe. Assets which belonged to the people of Europe were privatised or made ripe for privatisation.

That is the environment in which the Irish people are expected to trust Fine Gael, which shares the world view of political parties that have implemented these right wing policies and associates with these parties within the European People's Party. We are expected to accept Fine Gael's assurances that it will be grand because it is in the legislation. The reason people seek to enshrine matters of immense importance in the Constitution is because only the people can undo such provisions. The best way to reassure the Irish people that there is no plan to privatise their water is to agree to a referendum on this amendment. I have no doubt it would be overwhelmingly passed and public ownership of water would thereby be protected. Given that the Government is in such a crisis, I do not understand why it is not availing of the opportunity provided by this Bill to reassure people. This leads me to have doubts about the Government's intention. In its approach to Europe wide policies, Fine Gael is closely aligned in ideology, word and deed to its colleagues across the EU.

There has been resistance across the world to the privatisation of water, most heroically in Bolivia, where it was literally a matter of life and death. The attempt to privatise water led to a popular uprising. Uprisings are taking place across the countries in Europe that have been betrayed by their own political leaders and the right wing ideology of greed and inequality. In Spain, Greece, Portugal and Ireland there is a noticeable swing to genuine parties of the left which believe in equality. These parties have shown solidarity internationally. Sinn Féin is proud to work in partnership with political parties, particularly in Spain and Greece, which share a common platform and to present to people in Ireland and, because we have a bigger picture view, in Europe and across the world, the fight back and popular resistance against that which has failed them.

How can this famous 1% have so much control over our lives? Why do we fear to ask the very wealthy - I am not speaking about the middle classes or the upper middle classes - to pay their fair share? We do not begrudge them the big house, the big car or the big lifestyle. All we ask is that they pay their fair share, that they do not have tax avoidance schemes, travel to exotic places or move their companies here, there and all around. Whenever Sinn Féin proposes commonsense economic policies which ask the very wealthy to pay their fair share to take the pressure off the squeezed middle and the vulnerable, we hear the bleeding hearts defending them.

It is for these reasons that people do not trust the Government when its members tell them not to worry, this is all covered in the legislation and everything will be grand. Legislation can be changed overnight, but the Constitution cannot be changed unless the people sign off on that change by way of a referendum. If the Minister of State and his Fine Gael Party colleagues are sincere in their assurance that privatisation of water supply is not their plan - albeit it is the shared objective of their right-wing colleagues in Europe - then they should back this Bill and thereby answer the people's demand for a referendum on the matter.

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