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

I have been talking to rural dwellers, including people who supported the Minister of State's party in the past and they now have a water meter outside their door courtesy of Irish Water when the rural group water scheme was taken over and a one inch pipe was connected to it. Now they are customers of the corporate monster called Irish Water. In Derryguile, between Port Laoise and Mountmellick, the people are all on the supply line for Irish Water. All that is needed is a half-inch pipe. What was previously a rural group water scheme is now connected to the supply owned by the corporate monster called Irish Water. This is thanks to the Minister of State and his Government. Those rural dwellers will not forgive him for what he is doing because they are now in the very same boat as their urban neighbours, their sons and daughters and other relations living in the towns. That is what they have been telling me in recent weeks and months. Wait until the Minister of State faces them on the doorsteps in Waterford just as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charlie Flanagan, will have to face them in Laois.

The Minister of State should not try to play urban dwellers off rural dwellers. The Ministers have stuck the boot into the whole lot. The septic tank legislation which they pushed through the House is crazy. People cannot get an upgrade no matter how bad their tank is leaking. They have not protected people in rural areas. They have stuck the boot into them in the very same way as they did to people in the towns. People on low and middle incomes will suffer.

See this speech in context