Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Against the broader background of our not knowing what will be the overall cost of administrating the fiasco that is Irish Water - that cost may reduce the revenue the company is supposed to generate to zero or close to zero - incredibly, another cost is going to be added as a result of what is proposed in section 7.

I am opposed to the section because what is proposed in it is ludicrous and completely meaningless. The best advice I could give to the Minister would be for him to reconsider this entire matter. He should remember that there are already public forums in existence. These forums are being rendered completely superfluous by the actions taken by this Government - in the context of the matter before the House - and those which preceded it. The Government is castrating local authorities and making them completely meaningless to citizens. People used to have a place to go in order to voice their concerns but they will increasingly be obliged to deal with mini-quangos - somewhere off in the distance and full of cronies and stooges - or call centres on the other side of the world.

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