Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

At every opportunity the Government and particularly the Taoiseach repeats the mantra that this Government is doing things differently and that legislation is dealt with openly and transparently and in an accountable way. Maith thú, a Thaoisigh. Yet here, in the very best traditions of Fianna Fáil, the Government is pulling a stroke. We have a series of motions that are designed to facilitate adding the attachment of water charges and related matters to legislation that has nothing to do with the issue of water. It seeks to introduce attachment orders to a house, to impose an obligation on landlords to supply tenants' details to Irish Water and to make tenants liable for unpaid water charges. All of this deserves to be dealt with in separate legislation, allowing for pre-legislative debate with the stakeholders, a Second Stage debate, a full Committee hearing and Report Stage. Instead the Government is seeking to limit any discussion to a one-hour Committee debate. It is proposing to bypass all the mechanisms for proper democratic oversight.

We know the Government can ram it through. It can muster the backbenchers and they will vote whatever way they are whipped to vote, but it is not good enough. Irrespective of the defence the Taoiseach puts up for this and however he tries to force this through, he must know in his heart that it is not good enough.

I am at a loss to know how the Taoiseach persistently makes a mess of issues such as this, especially the unfair tax on water being imposed on householders.

Without much hope he will accept what I am saying, I ask him to review this issue and bring forward separate legislation with all of the related protocols attached to it.

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