Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion, because I did not get the opportunity to speak on the Bill last year. I acknowledge that it was wrong. The debate yesterday and today is very welcome. I welcome the announcement on water charges yesterday, and the associated caps. This gives the clarity and certainty that has been called for by people the length and breadth of the country - not just the people who came out on marches but the tens of thousands of people who contacted Members, talked among themselves and made quiet inquiries seeking clarity and certainty. I welcome the fact that they now have clarity after yesterday.

No one is perfect and no one gets everything right all the time. We are lucky to get things right most of the time. No Member has a seamless record and no Member of the House, whether past or present or on the Opposition or Government benches, is perfect. What happened yesterday signifies that, at long last, we have a Government in power that is not afraid of putting its hands up and saying it got things wrong. More importantly, it is moving to fix what it got wrong.

Yesterday demonstrated that our Government sincerely listened to the public's demands and rectified the faults as comprehensively as possible. We now have water charges to be capped at €60 per year for single-adult households and €160 per year for all other households, when the €100 conservation grant is taken into account. This provides the long-awaited comfort, transparency and stability wanted by families. Registered customers of Irish Water have the opportunity to beat the cap through conservation measures, which will see them paying less than the capped rate. I also welcome the later start date for charges, which will be 1 January 2015.

Mistakes have been made in the presentation of the facts and figures and in the management of data. Most importantly, mistakes were probably made in the hurried nature of the creation of Irish Water. However, the Government has listened to the people of Ireland and introduced structural changes and water charges, respectively, yesterday. We held up our hands and admitted these mistakes had been made. This motion demonstrates how the Government has reacted and, most importantly, listened to the people.

There is something we have not done, and that is instil fear and distress in families across the country. These were false fears that were aggressively executed by the Opposition Members. My colleague, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, correctly pointed out last night that the Opposition's track record is not all it seems to be. Light needs to be shed on the promises made by the Opposition on the likes of refuse charges, property taxes and now water charges to families across Ireland. These promises were made but were not kept. Deputy Fleming has left the Chamber but he mentioned earlier that yesterday's announcement was the biggest ever raid on the taxpayer. He must suffer from amnesia as the ultimate austerity tax of the universal social charge was introduced by Fianna Fáil, and it constitutes the biggest raid on this country's taxpayers. None of us will forget that.

I am sure I am not alone in pointing out our utter disgust at the behaviour of Sinn Féin last week, which was no more than a failed strategic move to divert attention from its track record of untruths and cover-ups around allegations through the years. It was pathetic, but people really saw through that stunt for what it was.

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