Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

It is nice to see that we can resume the debate on water charges, given that the sinister fringe has gone home. The Government feels safe again - mistakenly - now that tens of thousands of people are no longer outside the Dáil. The debate on privatisation inspired by these amendments gets to the core of this matter. I expected slightly more of a fig leaf from the Government on privatisation. When it started talking about privatisation and taking account of people's concerns about it, all the music initially suggested that the Constitution would be amended, or at least that a referendum would be absolutely essential. The Government's strategy has been badly exposed by the wording of this Bill, which essentially tells a future Government that it "may" have a referendum on the privatisation of water charges if it wants. No future Government will need the permission of this Government to have a referendum or pass legislation on anything it wants. This useless and meaningless line in the Bill before the House will not bind any future Government or any future Dáil to anything, especially given that the ability to repeal this legislation will lie in the hands of such a Government and such a Dáil in any case.

Deputy Naughten hit the nail on the head when he picked up on the use by the Minister, Deputy Kelly, of the word "cumbersome" when the Minister was responding to the Deputy's amendment No. 5. Cumbersome is precisely what we want. Cumbersome is precisely what the Labour Party and the Government as a whole were supposed to be arguing for. They may have forgotten that they are supposed to be saying "do not worry, nobody is ever going to privatise it". They are supposed to be making it as cumbersome as possible for anybody to privatise it in the future. The best way to do this would have been to include a provision in the Constitution. In the absence of such a provision, it should be done by any means possible. The notion that an amendment like that proposed by Deputy Naughten should not be made because it would make things cumbersome is somewhat bizarre. It exposes the reality that Governments are open to the idea that water may be privatised in the future. It points to the sinister agenda of the elements that were referred to by the former Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd. I would say those elements are twofold - they are political and they are in the European Commission. Together with the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, the Commission has driven water privatisation across Europe. The privatisation of water was an integral part of the troika deal in Greece and Portugal. It would have been an integral part of the deal that the previous Government here did with the troika if water charges had been in place in this country at that time. If water is to be attractive for privatisation in the first instance, it has to be commodified by means of the introduction of water charges.

The amendments proposed by the Anti-Austerity Alliance are fairly simple, obvious and democratic mechanisms that should be accepted by the Government. We are proposing that the McKenna judgment should apply to any plebiscite in this area so that the Government cannot spend huge amounts of money promoting its side of the referendum. I think people would see this as entirely reasonable, given that the purpose of a referendum is to ensure a decision on a specific question is made by the people as a whole rather than by the Government. Another one of our amendments seeks to make it clear that the Government should not be allowed to row in with massive financial resources. We are also proposing that the vote should be extended to all residents of this country who would be affected by the privatisation of water.

Two days ago, the Minister, Deputy Kelly, said he had gone around the country to listen to the reasonable people of Ireland. The phrase "reasonable people of Ireland" seems to have replaced "middle Ireland" in the rhetoric of the establishment in this country. The Minister told us that the reasonable people of Ireland have decided that they will pay these modest charges because they do not have a problem with them. The Government was confounded yesterday when tens of thousands of these reasonable people - up to 100,000 of them - turned up outside the Dáil to say they are still opposed to paying the water charges. They are still demanding that there should be no privatisation of these water charges.

The Government has exhibited a twofold response to yesterday's events. First, it has tried to talk down the scale of the protest, which was massive by any stretch of the imagination, especially given that it took place on a weekday during working time. Yesterday's immense protest filled two sides of Merrion Square fully and went from there all the way down Nassau Street to College Green. I suggest the size of the crowd was heading towards 100,000 people. It does not do the Government much good to deny that the protest was so big and to claim that the number of people was smaller than that. The people who were there know they were there. The people whose friends went know their friends were there. The people whose family members went know their family members were there. People know it was an immense protest and an expression of their refusal to be bought off, to be fooled or to be scared.

The second part of the Government's response to yesterday's protest is to suggest that everyone who was in attendance is a supporter of Sinn Féin and the so-called hard left. If that is the case, the Government has more problems than water charges. If we can conjure up 100,000 people to take to the streets during the week, the Government is facing a serious crisis that goes well beyond water charges. The Government's response will not work. The people who were at the protest are moving to the left. They can see through the lies of the Government and the establishment parties. The vast majority of them are not politically aligned. They are reasonable people who can see that regardless of the introductory rate of water charges, those charges will increase and will ultimately lead to privatisation. Will the Government continue with its delusional and arrogant response? It seems to be saying "so what, you can protest all you like, we are the Government, we are going to ram these things through". If it continues to act in such a manner, it will be surprised again by the next protests. Above all, it will be taken unaware by the level of the boycott that will meet these charges in April. I believe that boycott will sink the water charges and take down the Government.

See this speech in context