Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Government has spent €540 million on meters but only €50 million on the leaking pipes he decries so much. He refused to answer my question, once again. Is it not ironic that a Labour Party Minister, the Minister for making it up as he goes along, is responsible for this mess? In Opposition the Labour Party firmly ruled out the introduction of water charges but it has since emerged that it was planning to introduce water charges since 2010. An internal Labour Party memo prepared for its then leader, Deputy Gilmore, and the then deputy leader, the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, clearly outlined plans for the introduction of water charges and the installation of water meters. Now we know where the Labour Party stood on this issue all along, despite what it told the electorate.

Yesterday I asked the Taoiseach whether he had spoken to his old pal, Phil Hogan, about his unminuted and unrecorded meetings with the chair of Bord Gáis on the establishment of Irish Water. The Taoiseach refused to answer my question or to authorise an Oireachtas inquiry into this serious matter. Given the latest revelations about this billing debacle, is it not time he acknowledged that his party and the Labour Party have no mandate and that there is no sense in what they are doing in respect of water charges? I ask him once again to scrap these charges or, failing that, to get an exit visa from Enda land and call a general election on this issue.

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