Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I believe this forum will be worse than useless. Will the Minister withdraw this section? In my view, it is simply a smokescreen for Irish Water, for the Minister and for the CER. The history of getting information on Irish Water, water charges and water tax has been marked by failure. This House, and we as public representatives, have failed to get information from successive Ministers. Most of the information had to be got through freedom of information requests, not directly from the former Minister, Phil Hogan. When I did Leaders’ Questions for the Technical Group, I tried to get the information from the Taoiseach every week but could not. There is a culture of concealment in this whole area.

For the past three days, the Minister has been asked for various pieces of information which we simply have not been able to get from him. I have asked on three occasions for him to comment on an issue I have raised but have got no response from him.

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