Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The legislation on this will be before the Houses this week and also early in the new year. Deputy Paul Murphy will obviously have his chance to debate all of this in some detail.

If people enter into a reasonable payment plan, they will avoid all of the issues in question. I do not envisage anyone being thrown out of a local authority house in any way. I am in charge of local authorities and I know the main reason local authority tenants are evicted is anti-social behaviour. I do not envisage any other scenario where eviction would be the course of action.

The Deputy claims local authority tenants are being discriminated against. I do not agree with him. It is only fair that everyone pays their way as regards the contribution to what is necessary for water infrastructure. Hundreds of thousands of people - some of whom are watching these proceedings - already pay for water and have done so for many decades. I do not see Deputy Paul Murphy protesting outside their water schemes, yet they have had to pay thousands of euro over the past number of decades for water. There are two ways of looking at this.

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