Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate this evening, almost 12 months to the day since the original legislation to give effect to Irish Water was rammed through this Oireachtas. I think, at the time, we got two hours and 15 minutes to debate the original piece of legislation. What we see here today is more of what we have seen from the Government for the past three and a half years. It is spin over substance. We are allocating so much time here to debate this important piece of legislation, which is right. I believe, from talking to the Whip's office, that many Government Deputies will not even contribute to the debate. The Government is saying that the debate can continue to 9 p.m. tonight and 8 p.m. tomorrow in the hope that the Opposition Deputies do not keep the debate going. The Government then hopes it can come out next week and say that it gave us the time but we did not make use of it. It is an example of the tomfoolery that is happening at Government level in terms of allocating appropriate time for debates. Why was the Topical Issue debate removed from today's schedule? I had a topic of local importance that I have been trying to raise for the past number of weeks. Deputy Mathews had a piece of legislation to be debated tomorrow. This was all part of the reform agenda that this Government was bringing about. On the first Friday of every month, there was an opportunity through a lottery system for Opposition Deputies and Government backbenchers to bring forward legislation to be debated in the Houses of the Oireachtas. Where is that important critical piece of the reform agenda now? It has gone.

We have no votes tomorrow. Why? It is because the Government Deputies do not want to participate in the Houses of the Oireachtas. We saw it today and we see it on many Thursdays when a vote is called on the Order of Business or anything else. Almost one-third, if not more, of Government Deputies are not present to vote. That is fine, because that is their entitlement. I do not agree that every part of Deputies' work is about being in the Houses of the Oireachtas, but let us be honest and open with the public. I remember deputising for my party Whip at a Whips' meeting when the Government Whips said that the Taoiseach did not mind what we were debating once the lights were on. It is a case of making a play for the public to make it seem as though they are working hard and the Oireachtas is sitting longer, but in actual fact nothing is being done. If the Government was serious about reform, our sitting week could start on Tuesday and end on Thursday. We all acknowledge that on Mondays and Fridays both Government and Opposition Deputies have work to do in their constituencies. It will be interesting to see how many people contribute tomorrow and how many Government Deputies contribute tomorrow. Why are we not having a vote tomorrow? It is because there will only be a handful of Deputies in the House, so we are keeping the House open and the Government can say "We gave you as much time as you wanted." It should have given us time last year when the Government came up with the original idea. If the Government had done that and had given time, which all members of the Opposition looked for, we would not be here today. If it had given a bit more than two and a half hours, we would not be here today. One hundred and fifty thousand people would not have to taken to the streets of Dublin, 3,000 people would not have to taken to the streets of Mullingar, 2,000 people would not have to have taken to the streets of Longford, and 3,500 people would not have taken to the streets of Athlone. I mentioned the three towns in my constituency because I know the numbers. I saw on RTE news how thousands marched in Donegal because of the decisions taken by this Government 12 months ago.

The funny thing is that both senior and junior Ministers now come out and say that they are new to the job and this should not have happened. What happened to collective Cabinet responsibility? It was agreed at Cabinet, which is the Executive arm of this Oireachtas.

It was brought to the floor of this House and every Deputy in Fine Gael and the Labour Party walked through the lobby to vote for it because the whip was applied. Certain people like to blame the former Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Mr. Phil Hogan, for his bullyboy antics in bringing forward this legislation. Others say it was disgraceful to threaten people that their water supplies would be reduced to a trickle if they did not pay. These people have only found their voices in the last several weeks.

Prior to the local elections, the Taoiseach promised full transparency on the pricing structure for water but afterwards Deputy Rabbitte suggested it was not the wisest decision to announce charges in advance of a local election. Of course, the Commission for Energy Regulation was supposed to be setting the charges. We have not heard much from that body in the last several weeks. I wonder where it has gone. The original idea was to keep the matter at arm's length so the Government would not be held responsible for the original charges of €278 for a household of two adults and €500 for four adults, two of whom may have been attending college. Where did the Government expect people to find that money?

See this speech in context