Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this motion tabled by members of the Opposition.

I want to begin by acknowledging how privileged I am to be one of the 166 Members of this House, elected by people of Dublin South Central, working as a legislator with a single goal in mind, namely, to make this little country of ours a better place to live in, now and into the future. I get very annoyed when I hear Opposition Deputies say they will not pay the water charge, supposedly in solidarity with their constituents. It is not because of the cost that these Deputies say they will not pay, they just do not want to pay, but they can well afford it. Have they forgotten that the duty of legislators is to abide by the law of the land and that this is the law of the land? They are undermining democracy.

They refer in their motion to a “majority” wanting to abolish water charges. I do not believe for a moment that they speak for, or represent, the majority. Some 990,000 out of a total of 1.237 million households have registered with Irish Water. What about the constituents who want to pay? An old age pensioner stopped me the other day to say that she believes it is her duty as a citizen to pay the water charge. A parent of a disabled child who wants to pay told me that she wants clean running water, a proper system and for her country to be the envy of other countries in that children in this country would be treated well and would have access to clean water.

I am often reminded of how precious water is when I switch on the television at home and see children in African countries dancing around a newly installed clean water pump in their village and the stark contrast of a young girl walking five miles to the nearest stream to get water-----

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