Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Yes. The Government approach to this Bill, which should have been a new water services Bill but instead has been introduced in the form of amendments to entirely unrelated and irrelevant legislation, makes a joke of basic procedures of parliamentary democracy. It makes a joke of the rules of this House in respect of how things are meant to be debated on Committee Stage and then on Report Stage. It makes a joke of basic democratic rules.

Should we be surprised that this has been the Government's approach? No, because we can point to its previous approach on this issue, which has been to guillotine the debate on the Bill first time out and refuse on six different occasions to give us the basic figures and information we need about how many people have paid the water charges. Moreover, it is in line with the disgusting abuse of the media to create the impression that some major scaremongering legislation was coming down the line which would enable Irish Water to take water charges directly off people. That was never the case and it has proved not to be the case now either.

It is also in line with the approach of the Government's friends in the European Commission, European Central Bank and the German Government and the approach of its party allies across Europe. It is a line with what is happening in Greece. It is a pale echo of what is happening in Greece, which is an attempted regime change by the 1% in Europe. This is happening in contradiction to the results of elections recently held and in fear of a referendum due to happen on Sunday. Why are these events happening? They are happening because the Government is scared. It is scared of people, democracy, these ideas and of a discussion on these ideas taking place. It is believed that if people see what is contained in this legislation, on foot of proper debate, it will expose the scare-mongering for what it is and give people confidence.

The legislation being amended had nothing to do with water charges. It relates to smoky fuel, some typing errors and a park in Kerry. In the debate on Committee Stage, the relevant Minister simply said there were a few small technical changes to be made. Therefore, it is an absolute abuse of the democratic process to make these amendments.

The Minister, Deputy Kelly, mentioned today on this motion the idea of deposits being taken from tenants if they do not pay their water charges. Let us be 100% clear: that is more bluster. It is not proposed in the legislation in front of us today in the form of amendments. It was threatened time and again but the provision does not exist. It is not in the legislation for a definite reason, and tenants should not be scared. Admittedly, there is an obligation on their landlord to hand over their names. If the legislation is passed — it should not be if there is anything right in this Parliament - it will be an implied part of the tenancy agreements in the future but there is no incentive for the landlord to enforce it. Therefore, people should stick to the boycott and should not be scared about any of the Minister's scare-mongering tactics or completely undemocratic procedures.

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