Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Today, when the Minister, Deputy Kelly, in summoning all of the gravitas he could, opened his remarks he said this was a significant moment for the country. He went on to explain that the choice to be made was, according to him, between short-term emotion and anger or long-term prudence and commonsense. Undoubtedly, this could have been a significant moment for the Government, where it finally listened to the commonsense of the people.

It could have been the moment when it understood that people cannot and will not pay a charge for the water that comes through their taps - the moment it abolished water charges. Good sense could and should have prevailed. Instead, the Government chose to portray the people's opposition to the water charges as short-term emotion and anger.

I want to tell the Minister of State that he and the Government make the most grave mistake if they believe that either the anger or emotion expressed by hundreds of thousands of people on our streets is short term. The people's anger is a long time in the making - year after year, budget after budget. The people's emotion emanates from deep inside. It is the emotion of carers who have been penalised by the Government, of parents who have been put to the pin of their collars to keep their children warm, clothed and fed - the very children the Government so shamelessly failed to cherish - and of families struggling with poverty. This emotion is not transient. It is borne of bitter experience and is fuelled by the Government's distant disregard for how people in the real world have been forced to struggle on its watch.

The Government is not one guided by long-term prudence or common sense. It is conspicuously lacking in both of those virtues. No prudent government could dream up or stand over the corporate monster that is Irish Water. No prudent government would blow €500 million of the people's money on water meters, while 40% of treated water - as it never tires of reminding us - leaks from decrepit pipes. Nobody with an ounce of common sense would demand payment for domestic water from families that are already struggling just to get by. Nobody with a screed of cop-on would present this latest cobbled together plan as the final resolution on the water charges issue or the matter of Irish Water. Nobody in the Government should imagine that today's cobbled together plan will mark the end of the campaign to abolish water charges. It will do nothing of the sort. The Minister's notions about his legacy are perhaps the clearest proof - if more proof was necessary - of how out of touch is the Government. It is a rare claim to cite Irish Water and unaffordable charges as one's legacy and gift to the Irish people.

Earlier, some Deputies referred to the issue of affordability, which has been stated as one of the hallmarks of this plan. I have heard people shrug off the notion of a charge of €160 or €60 or €280 as though it was nothing. Indeed, this charge has been broken down to the per week cost. Deputy Joe O'Reilly stated it would be €1.15 or €3 per week. I do not know how often the following statement must be made in this Chamber, but I will make it again, if for no other reason than to have it on the record - I represent people for whom an additional €3 per week is too much and cannot be paid. They do not have that money. These are families that struggle now with the bills they have, families in deficit and that do not sleep at night because they cannot pay their electricity bills. These are families that have lost the roofs over their heads because they could not meet their rent.

Is there anybody in government who understands these facts? To glibly talk to these families about affordability and to tell them it is only €3 a week is of no assistance to them. I have said it before, but will say it again, that many of these families are what we now call the "working poor". They are not necessarily people reliant on social welfare payments. Anybody elected to this House who takes the trouble to knock around his or her community or neighbourhood is bound to have met the "working poor". Members know them, because they must live in their neighbourhoods. They are people who quietly and desperately panic and worry because they are just not making it. There is no affordability for these families, which are many. They have told the Government, in their thousands, that they are unable to pay anything. This is the position and the Government has been told this again and again. The word "affordability" from the lips of anyone in the Government is a joke. This is not an affordable scheme.

This is not a scheme that is correct in principle, because there are people who will not pay this charge, not because they are some kind of social deviants or irresponsible citizens, but because they believe, as do I, that water as a public good and perhaps the most basic necessity for every family and person should be paid for through progressive taxation. Like me, they believe that no citizen - one's elderly neighbour, people with a disability or people who have had the misfortune to lose employment - should ever face the prospect of being penalised because of being unable to pay for his or her domestic water. This is a matter of principle and does not represent social deviancy, but rather social solidarity, the stuff of which Irish people are made.

The Government says its plan represents simplicity and certainty. The people's message to the Government was simple - it should abolish the charge. It should do that and stop making it up as it goes along. It should abolish this charge. Let it go back to the drawing board and let us debate robustly, democratically and fairly the issue of leveraging funds for the creaking infrastructure. The popular democratic demand is that the Government should abolish the charge.

The Government speaks of certainty. People want the certainty that they will not face the prospect now or any time in the future of not being able to pay for something as basic as water. They want the certainty of knowing that water, as a public good, and water infrastructure will never be privatised. Yet for all the bluster, that certainty has not been delivered. What is certain is that penalties have been proposed for those who cannot pay or those who will not play ball with the Government's scheme. The Government talks about penalties and about landlords to deduct unpaid charges from tenants' deposits. Awful threats. It talks about attachment to properties. Perhaps, therefore, when property is sold on when somebody goes to their divine reward, the family will have to pick up the tab.

Deputy Fergus O'Dowd is to my mind the first Member on the Government side who has spoken honestly and directly on this issue. While we might not agree on everything, I acknowledge the honesty of his contribution.

There has been much talk about protests and about the incident last weekend involving the Tánaiste. I do not approve of anybody throwing bricks at An Garda Síochána or anybody else. However, the people who have come out in their droves to protest are not thugs. They are not guilty of any thuggery. They are active citizens with a mission and a message - that the Government must abolish these charges.

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