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

The water services Bill has been promised by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, the Tánaiste's colleague and deputy party leader, Deputy Alan Kelly. We were supposed to have this soon after Christmas. In the last day or two, the Minister has been reported as spearheading the debt collection aspect of Irish Water's campaign to collect unpaid water bills. Will this Bill, as the Minister has led us to believe, include measures to take the money out of people's pockets - out of the wages of the low-paid, who are workers such as those in Dunnes Stores, Tesco and Aldi and hotels up and down the country? Will it facilitate the taking of money out of those people's wages and from the payments of those who are on social welfare and who want to get off social welfare, or has this now been completely separated? What is the issue? What will it include with respect to local authority tenants and tenants in private rental accommodation? Will it give the Government and Irish Water the power to take payment from deposits?

1 o’clock

When will we see the Bill?

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