Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is so much wrong with charging people for water that it is hard to choose a specific issue to raise here. Water is a basic human right, but it is an indication of the mindset of the Government that it is regarded as fair game for boosting income to pay out to banks, such as the payment we heard announced yesterday when the Minister for Finance indicated that Anglo Irish Bank bondholders may get their €280 million, at a time when people are literally dying on our doorstep right outside this institution.

There is no doubt in the world that our water infrastructure needs attention. All over the country there are leaks, almost 50% of which are in local authority facilities. These leaks are a waste of what is a precious resource, but they have not received any attention over the years. It is sad that during the boom and the Celtic Tiger years no investment went into infrastructure to address leaks and inadequacies. The lack of attention to repairing infrastructure gives the lie to the claim that water metering is to do with conservation, particularly when we all know that the money spent on installing meters could have been used to make a massive improvement to our water systems if it had been spent on repairing the leaks and improving piping and infrastructure. This is not just a matter of conservation, because there are lead pipes still functioning all over the country. Is any consideration being given to this issue in the context of health and safety? In my constituency, in St. Brendan's Park in Tralee, an estate of 112 houses, there is lead piping still in existence and high levels of lead in the water, way above acceptable levels. A woman in Corbally, Limerick, brought a sample of her water to a lab and had it tested. It turned out to be ten times over the allowable EU limits for lead. This issue is not confined to areas outside Dublin. I am told that the people of Raheny and Marino, Dublin, have the same problem with lead piping and lead levels that are eight to ten times over the EU limit.

We also have the rural issue. I got a letter the other day from a man who farms 19 acres and is in receipt of farm assist social welfare payment. He gets a farm assist payment of €128 per week and earns €60 a week from his holding. He points out that he has a metered supply to his house and then pays his county council again for the supply to his land. He states in his letter: "As a customer of Irish Water, my charges at best will be €160 single adult home and €100 non-domestic business customer minus the €100 water conservation grant." He asks what the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, has to say to people who are paying twice for water. He also mentions another issue that I have raised here repeatedly. The farm assist payment, which was designed to ease the hardship of vulnerable farmers, used to be €204.30 and was means tested at 70% of income. After the 2012 budget, the personal rate was reduced to €180, but means test was raised from 70% to 85% of income. Then, in the 2013 budget, changes to farm assist payments meant that 100% of farm income would be means tested. On top of this, this man must pay the household charge or the property tax, and even before the commencement of domestic water charges, he is already paying €100 for his non-domestic supply. This must all come out of €188 per week. Now, if the Government has its way, he will face another water bill. He tells me his Christmas bonus will amount to €32. This is the reality of people's lives, but the Government has lost touch with that.

The anger of the people was seen on the streets in recent weeks, with over 150,000 people on the streets on one weekend. Every week since, tens of thousands of people across the country have been out protesting against these water charges.

The Government's climbdown on the initial charges has shown the people that people power, through peaceful protest, has an effect. However, the Minister needs to recognise that this is not just about water charges. This anger is the culmination of people's feelings about numerous charges applied over the past three to four years to implement the austerity introduced by the previous government, which have deprived people of spending power. This has had a huge impact on rural Ireland and in areas where people were so dependent on the spending power of low-income families.

People are angry because Irish Water is another quango and because of the excessive bonuses being paid to people who have done nothing to improve the infrastructure. The water charges have become the straw that has broken the camel's back. People see these charges as another broken promise - a promise broken in order to facilitate bankers and bondholders and to promote and institutionalise austerity. People are being made destitute. Austerity is taking so much money from people's pockets that they are unable to give their children a full education. This is the cumulative effect of the implementation of austerity. Why is this? Why are we in a situation in which tens of thousands of people throughout the country are so angry and disgusted by what is happening that they are taking to the streets in peaceful public protest? They have had enough. They have come to the end of their tether and cannot take any more. I expect that next Wednesday, outside this door, we will see anything from 20,000 to 30,000 people. What will the Government do if this number of people turn up on a working day? Will it do the right thing and scrap these charges? Will it listen to people? Will it live up to the promises made when it was in opposition? These are all clear choices that the Government must make.

Opinion polls reflect the fact that people no longer trust the Government. This is not just about water any more; it is about the current Government. It is not just about another broken promise, but about the legacy the Government is leaving behind it and the problems it has created for ordinary, decent working-class families and the people most in need of support, like the farmer I mentioned living on 19 acres of land. The Government is taking money from that man's pocket, the pocket of a man who has to go with a begging bowl to get his farm assist payment. Farm assist has been reduced continuously in successive budgets. Farm assist helps him not to live but to survive, yet the Government is taking this security from him. It is not just small farmers who depend on payments, but also low-income families, people on social welfare, and people who are trying to educate their children and now find themselves unable to provide any support for third level education. These charges are hitting the people most in need and contributing to the decimation of rural Ireland. Austerity is contributing to the fact that in many of our coastal communities people have nothing and most young people have left. They have left because of the austerity being promulgated and promoted by the Government. This must all be examined.

If the Government continues to turn a blind eye and make choices that penalise the people most in need, then it will get its comeuppance at the next election or before it. Next Wednesday, I have no doubt, tens of thousands of people from all over this country will converge on this city and they will converge to ask this Government to go, and go now.

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