Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

What the Taoiseach and the Government are proposing here is a gross abuse of parliamentary procedure. They are attempting to introduce substantial measures, for example, on motor taxation, on waste management and on water charges and related issues but instead of having separate Bills for each issue, with a proper Second Stage for each, they are attempting to roll the whole lot together in one Bill and to ram it through. We know that Deputy Alan Kelly, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, fancies himself as "The Terminator" of the 31st Dáil and thinks he can bludgeon his way through the elected Members, the Opposition in particular.

Unusually, the private meeting of the banking committee finished early today, in anticipation of an all-day meeting tomorrow and Thursday. One of the reasons many Deputies are, unfortunately, imprisoned for days on end in regard to the issues, is because governments did not listen to the voices of the Opposition in regard to the speculation and the profiteering that was going on by bankers and developers, etc.

In regard to Irish Water issues in particular-----

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