Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There has been much talk about privatisation of Irish Water and we heard the former Minister of State speak about this earlier.

The commitment that the Government is trying to put across in its supposed plebiscite is much like the triple lock, and people may remember the trickery involved with that. Rather than putting a commitment to Irish neutrality into the Constitution, the Government created something which was not such a commitment. The very same trickery is being attempted by the Government on this occasion.

Deputy Pat Rabbitte said last night:

There won't be any privatisation of water services. No Government with its head screwed on would seek to privatise something as critical as the water supply.

We only need to look at the record of this Government to date in that it has already privatised social welfare services, has tried to privatise Coillte, although it backed down on that because of the backlash, and is trying to privatise bus services at present. There is a record and a trend, and it is not the fault of the IMF or the ECB; it is the fault of this Government and its intentions. The only logic to the Government's argument that there should be a plebiscite is to have a plebiscite that matters. That means we would have a referendum to enshrine within the Constitution the right to water and that Irish Water would never be privatised.

As I said, Deputy Rabbitte said no Government with its head screwed on would do this, that or the other, and in particular privatise critical services such as water supply. However, this is the same Minister and Government that have cut child benefit, despite promising the opposite, and said there was no cut to social welfare services or allowances, when 17 social welfare allowances were cut since the Government took office. The Government has been engaged in transparent cronyism despite the fact it said there was a democratic revolution. All we need do is look at the board of IMMA, which was filled for five minutes just to get a nomination. A constitutional right to water and a constitutional protection of water services is what is needed.

There has been a lot of talk about under-investment from the other side of the House as if Fine Gael and the Labour Party have never been in government in this State. They are just as responsible for the under-investment in the water services in this State as Fianna Fáil, and they cannot shirk that. They were in government and they did not invest, and they have been in government for the past four years and they still have not invested. Instead, they say they will land it on top of the people and let them pay three or four times. The people are not fools, although today's package assumes they are. The Government will see that they will not be hoodwinked into signing up to this water charge, which will inevitably rise in the future. The carrot the Government has offered today is all it is - a carrot. The stick comes after 2018, when the water charges rocket to levels the Government cannot imagine but which we have imagined and outlined directly from the start of this debacle under Fianna Fáil, when it promised to introduce water charges with its partners in crime at that time, the Green Party.

The Minister, Deputy Kelly, said earlier that this new package provides certainty, simplicity and affordability. I have been on the marches and I did not hear anybody chanting "What do we want? Simplicity", or "What do we want? Affordability". What they want is the charges ended now. This means the Minister is not listening. He came here and said "We have listened". In fact, he has not listened because he has not come here and abolished the water charge. If he had listened, that is what he would have presented today.

Of course, water has to be paid for. The taxpayer is already paying for it, up and down the country, and that should continue under a progressive taxation system. However, the model that is being proposed today and that has been proposed from the start is regressive. A family of two or four, on €30,000 a year, will pay the exact same as a millionaire in this city or this State. That is not progressive taxation. The League of Credit Unions latest "What's left" survey showed that 483,000 people have nothing left at the end of the month - not €10, not €3, not €1 but nothing. They cannot pay for something with what they do not have.

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