Dáil debates
Thursday, 20 November 2014
Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed)
12:25 pm
Brian Walsh (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source
The information I have been given is that it is 49%. There are too many households on boil water notices and many towns and villages are not served by adequate treament systems. They are the reasons this measure had to be introduced. We are spending €1.2 billion per annum and cannot leave it at that, ignoring the urgent infrastructural investment required. That is what the utility company will facilitate.
Yesterday there was criticism of metering, but it is required to establish and find some of the leaks. A useful piece of information I came across yesterday was that from only 22 residential units at which meters had been installed, 1 million litres of water per day was leaking.
While this has not been the Government's finest hour, some Opposition Members have failed to cover themselves in glory either. I refer, in particular, to Deputy Paul Murphy and Sinn Féin. A majority of those who took to the streets had legitimate concerns and protested in a very peaceful manner. They will be appalled at the way in which demonstrations have been hijacked when they see some of the thuggery and intimidation around the country. I saw some of these guys in Galway. They are serial protestors who had followed the Taoiseach and Ministers around the countryside with their recycled Sinn Féin and triple A election posters, abusing, spitting at and kicking Irish Water workers. I heard yesterday that some Irish Water workers had been followed and intimidated outside their family homes. They were trapped in vehicles for up to 12 hours at a time. This is the unreasonable behaviour that has occurred. While people share the concerns of Deputy Paul Murphy and his associates and oppose what they oppose, they do not support the intimidation and thuggery he has supported. Fair-minded people had concerns and I am confident that they have now been addressed through the measures outlined to the House yesterday.
Kate Hunt
Posted on 25 Nov 2014 11:22 am (Report this comment)
Dancing with the devil of FG, I can scarcely believe this TD is classed as Independent. Every thing he says is from the FG handbook. The underhanded attempt to vilify IW protesters, the claim that 'most people' support these water charges. Would the TD stick to fact rather than conjecture and bad inclined lies. I notice there is no parity, the police brutality to WOMEN, people trapped in their estates by IW workers aren't mentioned, the infringements on Human Rights such as the right to bodily integrity & the right to protest, both enshrined in our Constitution & by European Law. That these infringements by An Garda Siochana are not referred to shows that this TD is not interested in truth or transparency, rather working to the ever more obvious Enda Agenda. This heinous plan is to try undermine the IW protesters so much that they lose the majority of support. Unhappily, FG refer to the English class system, which most of Ireland are not proponents of. So when they say Middle, they attempt to distance 'respectable' people. Well Brian Walsh, this is a dismal effort at being Independent and an unfortunate smear on yourself rather than the campaigners exercising their Right to protest. We can and we will use our might against a corrupt, unjust regime and a plan of extortion of the Irish taxpayer, yet again. You have no conscience to do what you did in this biased dirty speech.