Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Dara Calleary for sharing time. I condemn what happened to the Tánaiste last weekend at the protest. It is appalling to keep a lady captive for a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon. There must be a certain amount of proper protest, which everyone in a democracy accepts. It went too far, but it was not the first time. I look with amusement at the indignation and condemnation of the protests from Government benches. I remember the protests about medical cards in October 2008. A former Minister of State, John Moloney, was stopped from speaking at a church on Westland Row. Some current Government backbenchers organised busloads and trainloads of people to protest on that occasion. It was all fine and great fun at that time. In July 2009, the car of the then Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Brendan Smith, was almost overturned by protesters, but there was no word from those now on the Government benches. I accept it was wrong then and it is wrong now, and I welcome the conversion of the Members on the Government benches to the normal rule of law and normal discourse. I remember protests taking place outside Deputies' offices and nasty things were done. It was wrong then and is wrong now, but I welcome the conversion of Government backbenchers to the natural rule of law.

I have thought long and hard about why people got so angry about Irish Water and what happened over the past months. It kicked off because the parties in government, when they took over, said there were going to be no more quangos, and this was set up as the brainchild of Deputy Simon Coveney in the NewERA document of 2009. When the enormous amount of money wasted on consultants' fees became clear in the early part of the year, people became irate. Then the bonus culture was revealed and it seemed as if nothing had changed in the setting up of Irish Water. People looked at what happened heretofore with the provision of water in Irish society, which was done by local authorities. People asked why there could not be one overarching body and why it had to be set up as a gold-plated, money-wasting super-quango. This was one of the fundamental issues that sprang the public to protest.

What happened yesterday was one of the most gigantic U-turns of all time. A super-quango has been set up and has wasted €660 million, with nothing to show for it. It became clear in January or February that a huge amount of money had been spent on consultants. If the money had been given to local authorities at that point to upgrade water systems, as was done through general taxation heretofore, it could have done a great deal for leaking pipes. What could be done with the amount of money spent on Irish Water is mind-boggling.

Irish Water must be scrapped and we must go back to where we were prior to the ramming through of legislation with the use of the guillotine on 19 December last. We must go back to that point and start afresh.

Everything that has been set up should be disbanded and we should revert to working with local authorities, with one simple and streamlined way of doing business. It is not beyond the realms of possibility to get to that stage. I emphasise the point that it is time to scrap Irish Water absolutely and return to the drawing board in order to formulate a simplified way of delivering water to the people.

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