Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the figures I read out earlier, the Minister has not confirmed whether he has changed his mind on them or whether he is now rowing back on them. I ask the Minister of State to confirm that over the past six and a half months he has put that €500 million of a loan onto the State's balance sheet, that effectively the €59 million write-off in rates that no other commercial semi-State company enjoys, is a hit on the taxpayer and that the other figures I read out relating to the subvention for operational and capital funding of €399 million and €222 million, amounting to a total of €750 million when it is added to the so-called water conservation grant, gives a figure of over €1.3 billion.

It is worth noting that before this was introduced, rural group water schemes received a subvention out of general taxation and the local government fund. People did not object to that subvention nor should they. People in rural areas who wanted to drill a well or to improve a well always received the appropriate grant to do that. However, the Minister of State is not doing anything to improve or add to it. The chances are that the Minister will take from it down the line if the opportunity arises. That grant should continue.

The Minister of State said he is not taking money out of the local government fund for Irish Water but this is a smoke and mirrors job on his part. The Minister of State is taking the motor tax money. The hauliers in particular will love this Government for this. Does the Minister of State know how hard-pressed they are? Some of them are paying four times the motor tax and four times the road tax that hauliers pay in the North. They are paying €3,600 and €3,800 for an articulated tractor unit. The Minister of State is using their money to pump it into the leaking pipes in order to sustain the unsustainable corporate monster that is Irish Water. Then he robs the money from the social protection fund - €130 million - in a laughable water conservation grant that should not be there because the domestic water charges should not be there. Members of this House can claim it. Does that not show the Minister of State how ridiculous it is? Millionaires can claim it. It is ridiculous.

People in rural areas should continue to get what they used to get from the local government fund and general taxation, the well grants and the subvention for rural group water schemes. Can the Minister of State not see that these proposals are crazy? I know he does and I know the Minister, Deputy Kelly, does too. They want to keep everything smooth. The reason this legislation is being rammed through the House is that if it had to be done in two separate Bills, they know they might not get it through in the next two weeks and a series of sittings of this House before the summer recess. By stitching it onto a Bill about dog breeding and the park below in Killarney, they will get it through the House. It is like what they did before the last two Christmas breaks with the local property tax Bill. Does the Minister of State remember what he and the Minister did last year with the water Bill on the eve of Christmas before they went on their Christmas holidays? They did the very same as they are doing now. They do not want any humps or bumps in the autumn. They do not want any outcry about any of this in the autumn in the run-in to an election. They have it all planned. They have foreseen everything. They have bought one half and intimidated the other half. That is what they think they have done and they are hoping to get by. They are hoping that the half they have bought will support them in the election. All should be fair in politics and the Ministers should be up-front with the public and with us. They should stop twisting what the Opposition Deputies are saying and they should be honest with us.

See this speech in context