Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

This section deals with the price people will have to pay for their water. I was surprised to hear the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, being very dismissive of the 80,000 people who walked the streets yesterday, mid-week and mid-winter, and saying there are other more important and serious issues. There are other important and serious issues but this is important and serious to thousands of families throughout this country.

It is not just about this €1 or €3 per week, which the Minister for Health mentioned, but this is at the end of years of austerity. Some €30 billion has been taken out of people's pockets. People have faced increases in bills over the past six years. Electricity has gone up by nearly 28% while gas has gone up by 30%. We have had the universal social charge, the pension levy, prescription charges and cuts to the respite care grant. All these small cuts have had a cumulative impact on people. People have said they cannot take anymore of this austerity and that this is a step too far.

This is where people have drawn the line and said the Government is not going to come after them again. They know this is a Trojan horse, that this is the start, even though it has been capped to 2018, and that full cost recovery will most likely kick in after that.

The Minister’s party may or may not be in government and he may or may not be Minister. That raises a big question in people’s minds about where this is going. This legislation, as we said before about privatisation, is not robust enough to put people’s minds at rest that this is not going to happen.

Experience has shown that this does happen, for example, the bin tax, which was based on the polluter pays principle. I support the polluter pays principle, that everything is put in place for people to recycle and reuse and those who do not use the services to recycle their bottles or plastic pay for pollution. The water directive came in under the polluter pays principle too. Who is the polluter? Ordinary people are not polluters. They want to conserve their water. They know it has to be paid for. People do not run their taps all day, despite what the Minister for Finance said that if they did not pay for electricity, they would leave lights on all day. How dismissive he is of the people of this proud country. People are not stupid. I oppose this section and will oppose the whole Bill.

In 2008, John Gormley, a former Green Party Minister, brought in again a 2003 exemption for domestic wastewater under the river basin plan. The current Minister will bring that plan to Brussels for renewal on 1 January 2015. Will that exemption go and, if so, how will that impact on this Bill because, as I understand it, the Minister will say it is covered by the new system? The European Commission cannot force us to change that exemption unless the Minister wants that to happen. People are very exercised by the idea that the Minister can put a line through the exemption because he is bringing in this Bill. I strongly urge the Government to listen to the people and abolish Irish Water and the water tax and bring that in through progressive taxation. Someone earning €70,000 a year who has got a nice tax cut of maybe €17 a week has to pay only €3 a week whereas someone earning €13,500 a year who got a tax cut of €2 a week also has to pay €3 a week. It does not make sense. It is absolutely unequal. People have said this does not happen with the ESB and the other utilities, such as gas, etc. Maybe it should happen because people need those utilities. Gas and electricity are different from water, which is a human need. People can live without electricity and gas, maybe very badly, but they cannot live without water. We need clean water in our system. I urge the Minister, taking on board all the points that have been made today, to continue using VAT and motor tax to provide the €1.2 billion for infrastructure and increase it if necessary and bring in a progressive tax to fund the local authorities in this area.

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