Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Government has claimed for months that the anti-water charges campaign is on its last legs, but the huge turnout of citizens at the right to water rally in this city last Saturday gives the lie to these claims. Contrary to the Government's assertions ,citizens are more determined than ever on this issue. They have told the Government that they cannot and will not pay its water charge and that Irish Water is a toxic quango that should be abolished. Instead of listening to all of the warnings and the hundreds of thousands who have demonstrated and instead of scrapping water charges, water charge protestors were jailed, local authorities were forced to hand over details of tenants, while landlords were forced to do the same. The Government wasted €650,000 on a new advertising campaign and gave away €85 million of taxpayers' money to private consultants, as well as wasting €539 million on water meters. Now the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, is threatening to take water charges from people's wages or social welfare payments. Does the Taoiseach support the Minister in his latest threat? Will the Taoiseach explain the legal basis for the process he has indicated? Will he tell the Dáil how the Government intends to distinguish between those who cannot pay the water tax and those who will not pay?

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