Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Yet the conservation argument has gone out the window, or fallen off the back of Rodney's truck. Does the Government intend to store the water meters along with the e-voting machines? What is the point in anybody accepting a water meter when it will not be needed for four years? Why would a person do that?

The question now is whether this trickery will work. Will the discounted goods be bought? I firmly believe the answer is "No". The protests will continue because people are how emboldened. They have seen their own power, something that has not happened for a number of years and which the Government hoped would never happen. People are confident and they see that the days of "There is No Alternative", TINA, which we used to hear every morning on the radio, are well over.

Ministers have tramped through here today and talked about anger not being a good emotion for people to be working off. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, made a very unfunny joke that the three As in the acronym for the Anti-Austerity Alliance all stand for "Anger". In fact, anger is one of the most powerful and energetic emotions there is. It is the motivator for most of the change that has happened in society throughout the decades, centuries and millennia. Sometimes that anger is suppressed and sometimes it bubbles over, as we have seen recently. Attempts by the Government and media to denigrate those who are angry by describing them as a "mob" are highly insulting.

I draw Members' attention to an observation made by James Connolly. I am sure the Government will be dusting down the books about him in time for its 1916 celebrations. He said, "All hail, then, to the mob, the incarnation of progress." Connolly's point was that the hierarchy, the people at the top, never did anything to advance progress. It was always the "mob", as they were depicted by the likes of this Government and other elites, who forced change. There is no record in history of any movement led by the hierarchy for abolishing torture, preventing war, establishing popular suffrage or shortening the hours of labour. I am sure Connolly's observation is one the Government will be suppressing for the centenary celebrations.

The question for ordinary people is where do we go from here. Non-payment of the bills remains the most powerful weapon we have to get rid of water charges, to finish them off for once and for all. The penalties the Government has introduced today will not cow the masses out there. We were told today that after a full year of non-payment plus three months, which takes us up to March 2016, the Government will move to impose penalties of €60 or €30. I am sure people are quaking at that prospect. After all, that is the month in which there will be a general election, if this Government is not gone before then. Do Members opposite not agree that water charges will be the greatest issue in the election campaign? Why would anybody in their right mind pay out under the pathetic system that has been introduced today when they can lobby and demand that any party proposing to form a government must abolish the charges? I guarantee that this is exactly how people will see it. The Government's attempts to calm things down and get itself off the hook will not work.

On 10 December, a huge demonstration will take place in this city. There is already talk of people taking the day off work. I welcome this and invite people to take part, too, in the We Won't Pay protest outside Irish Water's headquarters on Talbot Street on Saturday week at 2 p.m.

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