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

How long has this Government been in power? When it negotiated a change to the troika agreement, it clapped itself on the back. If there was a figure, why did it not renegotiate it? Why did thousands of people need to take to the streets for the Government to see sense and roll back somewhat? It has not rolled back half enough because in the budget it announced a rebate of €100 through the tax system, and then a payment of €100 through the social welfare system. This was a knee-jerk reaction which forgot about the people in the middle who do not pay any tax.

This Government likes to refer to its predecessor but it was Fine Gael's idea to establish Irish Water. This Government commissioned PriceWaterhouseCooper to prepare a report but it ignored the report when it advised against establishing Irish Water. In its wisdom, it chose to invest €500 million on installing meters and €180 million on establishing Irish Water with 700 staff. There was no word of concern or objection from anybody in Government at the bonus culture but, then again, it was performance related pay not a bonus. Who set the terms and conditions?

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