Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This relates directly to section 7. If the Minister is not going to answer questions on Irish Water in the Chamber or via written reply and if the key stakeholders are not on the forum, which is being established merely to be a talking shop and to create a mirage, from where will we get answers? The Minister will move further down that track. I know where this is going - I saw it with local authorities. A structure like this is created and then it and its managers are blamed by us. Meanwhile, the Minister will claim that something is an operational matter for Uisce Éireann. The most fundamental issues will be pushed away and we will not have the forum we need to get answers.

Many of the 949 local authority members are affiliated to parties that the Minister and Minister of State represent as Deputies. Like me, they meet and talk with those members at the weekend. Now they will have to tell them that not only have local authority members and Dáil Éireann been sidelined, but we are creating a body that does not have the right people at the table, never mind the power to hold Uisce Éireann to account. That is my problem with the forum. It is an illusion of accountability and consultation. In reality, it will have no teeth because it will not have the necessary people at the table.

This is a bad day for democracy, of which the House and local authorities are the primary forums. The Government is removing democracy from them and the representatives of key sectors of society will not be members of the forum. It is a bad day for republicanism.

See this speech in context