Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister deserves a medal from the political school of cute hoorism when it comes to how he has tried to manipulate, in the most cynical way, the democratic process in order to ram through measures to do with water charges in a Bill that ostensibly had nothing whatsoever to do with them when it was introduced in the Dáil.

It is disappointing that much of the media have not shown any outrage at this cynical manipulation of the political process. It seems as if this sort of carry-on is just par for the course in this Chamber, because that is what governments do. They manipulate, get around and circumvent proper democratic procedure and political oversight of important legislation that affect citizens. Perhaps there is a feeling in government and media circles that the people do not really care about these issues and do not care about democratic procedure, but they are wrong. People are very awake to this. They are aware that in this country and now across Europe, as we see in Greece, there is a war on democracy. Democracy is becoming the major casualty of the ruthless and relentless efforts of the European Union and governments like ours to inflict austerity and to do so using the most foul means, undermining the democratic process.

Europe is showing itself aghast at the prospect that the Greek people might be allowed to vote on the blackmail being deployed by the European Union in terms of further vicious austerity measures being imposed on a people who are utterly crushed. The idea that they should have a referendum is considered with shock. It is denounced and vilified by the European Union and by our Government, because the people might decide. In the same vein here, the Minister has done everything to make sure the people have no view or oversight of legislation to deal with an austerity measure that he is trying to coerce and enforce on people. This sort of cynicism is sickening.

People are waking up to the Minister however. He will see thousands of people outside the Dáil tonight expressing their disgust at what he has done and showing their solidarity with the people of Greece. He will see this again on the streets on Saturday. Of course, the reason the Minister has manipulated this process is that he is terrified of the protests, the popular rebellion and the growing resistance to austerity and the attack on democracy that he and his mate, Angela Merkel, are inflicting on people in this country and across Europe.

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