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

With regard to the water situation, right now, because of the activity of the Minister of State, Deputy Paudie Coffey, and his Government, there are people going to petrol stations with 5-gallon drums seeking to fill them with kerosene because they cannot afford to fill their oil tanks. Right now, because of the Government, there are people who must decide to send one child to a dentist and the other to a doctor because they cannot afford to send each child to both. Right now, because of the Government, there are people who are literally going without meals so that one of their children can have a meal.

I spoke to a pensioner very recently who had her oil tank stolen in midsummer, just before the local elections. She told me she needed to get another oil tank before the winter set in and that she could not afford to do so.

She decided to skip breakfast and get up at lunchtime in order to save a few bob every day. She also decided to have dinner with her daughter in order that she could save a few shillings every week to be put by for an oil tank. She told me that she had worked all her life and said she could not understand how the Government was hammering her for a water charge she could not afford. She asked, "How can Fine Gael and Labour do this to me?"

People regularly come to my constituency office who are literally scrimping for every cent to pay their mortgage and they are at the edge of being thrown out of their houses. People also come to my office who cannot afford to pay their rent. In County Meath the rent cap in the case of an average three bedroom house is €650 provided by the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, but the average rent in Dunshaughlin, Ashbourne or Dunboyne is €1,000, which means that there is a gap of €350. This year in County Meath 700 people, from all backgrounds, will have presented as homeless. They are all at the edge because of the votes of the Minister of State, Deputy Paudie Coffey, and his colleagues in recent years. They are being asked to pay a water charge at a time when they cannot even afford to feed themselves. This is their difficulty. At some point the Minister of State and his colleagues will have to start listening to and being straight with the people.

This water services package is dishonest and will push people over the edge into poverty. The votes of those in government will increase the level of poverty. That citizens have been vocal about their fears about Uisce Éireann is good and they are fearful that it will be privatised in the future. This fear is well founded because Fine Gael and the Labour Party are privatising public utilities and organisations. The Government stated Irish Water may be privatised in the future, but this is hocus pocus. Sinn Féin gave it an opportunity to use its vote to ensure it would not be privatised in the future, but it decided not to vote on that basis. Instead, it promised to hold a referendum some time in the future to decide if Uisce Éireann would be privatised. That is political trickery. It should rule out this option now and should support Sinn Féin's call for a referendum on the issue of privatisation.

It is incredible that after barely four years, the Labour Party and Fine Gael are speaking to and about the people with the same detached arrogance of Fianna Fáil when it was approaching the end of its period in government. Even when the Government must stand up for the people by standing up to the European Union, it is shocking how the Labour Party and Fine Gael show such little interest in standing up for fairness and democracy. Back in the day when Fianna Fáil was in charge, Bertie Ahern and Charlie McCreevy held the reins of government fiscal power. The Government in its democratic revolution decided to extend that number to four people who have their hands on expenditure and fiscal issues.

Sinn Féin has discussed on many occasions in the House the hardship people are experiencing under the Government's watch. Ministers trot out the lines that they are listening to the people and that they understand the sacrifices they are making. However, since 2011 only a small cohort have actually experienced an increase in economic wealth - the 10% with the highest incomes - and also Labour Party and Fine Gael Deputies. Therefore, their experience of the economic crash has been the direct opposite.

The Labour Party Minister of State, Deputy Gerald Nash, told us that he was listening to the people who had spoken out about the problems in Irish Water and that he understood when hard-pressed families said they could not afford to pay water charges. Then, without a hint of irony, he tells his constituents in Louth and East Meath that this water services package is affordable. Where is the evidence to support such statements by him and other Government Deputies? How is this unjust charge affordable for workers on zero hour contracts? Ireland now has the second highest percentage of low paying jobs among OECD counties and the third highest rate of under-employment in the European Union. How could the water charge be affordable for these low paid under-employed workers? I ask the Minister of State to consider the hundreds of thousands whom the Government, through its vote, has pushed into deep poverty. How can these individuals afford to pay water charges? I ask Ministers to listen to the people before it is too late.

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