Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Labour Party is in disarray. We have protestations that the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly's announcement yesterday was not a political row-back, but this is absurd. This is not about saving water but about saving the political skin of the Labour Party as it lurches to the right economically. This temporary €100 rebate is little more than a sop to fit within the narrow confines of the EUROSTAT rules. These rules are governed by EU policy objectives which are the commodification and privatisation of water infrastructure.

Water is a public good. It is necessary for life itself. It cannot be a commodity. It is critical that this issue be understood by the Government and that this commodification be understood in that context. Only last month we had the European Economic and Social Committee's call on the European Commission to come forward with legislative proposals to honour the right to water European citizens' initiative. Since 2010 the United Nations General Assembly has explicitly recognised access to water as a human right and the Human Rights Council has done the same. Employers, trade unions and a diverse range of organisations have come out in support on this issue, yet we have European institutions still trying to commodify this product. We ask why the Government is following their objectives. Who is it actually working for when it does this?

We know that the long-term impacts of the bailout are biting down on communities across Ireland. It is astounding that Labour Party Deputies, in particular, are so divorced from the real experience of people in this society. Citizens are being burned by the bully boy tactics of the ECB and the European Commission. The ECB played a central role in the banking crisis, yet when Mario Draghi was asked whether representatives of the ECB would appear at the banking inquiry, he refused to say if they would. There was not even a whimper from the Government to complain about this.

The Irish people make up 1% of the EU population. We took the burden of over 40% of the banking crisis. The way it was paid for here was very different - an outlier in comparison to other European countries and the way they paid for it. People understand the fundamentals of all of this. They understand that when the Government pushes for water charges, what it is doing is pushing for the payment of these banking bailouts. Right now, the budget allows for €1.65 billion to be paid on bank debt servicing - the interest on the bank debt. Imagine the amount of water infrastructure that would be built in that regard.

UNICEF recently issued a report card which said that this country under the Minister of State has seen the largest increase in child poverty in the EU and the highest rate of underemployment. We are now ranked second highest percentage-wise in respect of low-paying jobs in the OECD. This is an example of the toxic legacy that is being left by the Labour Party.

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