Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

It is incredible, especially in view of the democratic revolution that was promised, that the Taoiseach, instead of having a full Second Stage debate, is attempting to ram through important provisions on water charges and including them in a completely separate Bill to save having to hold a debate in this House. There are important aspects to what is being proposed that require consideration by a committee. For example, there is no provision to deal with the threat to deduct charges from tenants' deposits, nor is there provision, which was threatened, to take water charges from the incomes of ordinary people. There are, however, important provisions in the Bill which an attempt to scare tenants, a very vulnerable group in our society, into paying water charges, threaten them with eviction and shift more than €500 million from the property tax which people have paid at huge sacrifice into a fund for Irish Water. All of these matters need much more examination. What the Taoiseach has proposed is totally undemocratic. It is one of the most hated austerity measures and the Taoiseach is attempting to avoid a Second Stage debate by guillotining the debate in a one-hour discussion tomorrow. It is disgraceful and a continuation of the way the Government has treated people from the start on the issue of water charges. I would love to hear the payment figures because the Government is obviously very worried if it is ramming this measure through to scare those in the private rental sector into paying water charges, but it will not work. I will be calling a division on the Order of Business.

See this speech in context