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

I do not need to speculate about what people were saying on the demonstrations. I was at them. The Tánaiste glibly says that it is only €1.15 or €3 a week, which it is if people have that in their pockets. I am troubled by the fact the Tánaiste, seeing as she references working class communities across this city and beyond, does not seem to grasp that there are people who do not have any euro or cent at the end of a given week or month with their current bills, never mind water charges. They cannot pay.

I will ask two specific questions and the Tánaiste might give me two specific answers. What about the people who cannot pay? Some of them are the working poor and we all know them so let us not pretend that they do not exist. What about the people who cannot pay? What do they face - penalties and attachments to dwellings? What does the Tánaiste say to them?

Everything was considered in the package of measures announced yesterday. What consideration was given to abolishing domestic water charges? That was, and still is, the demand. Was there a discussion to consider the demand made by so many?

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