Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I did not interrupt you so please spare me. A huge number of people pay for their water. The reason they do so is because if they did not come together as a group of citizens and provide a water service for themselves, nobody would do it for them. On the previous occasion we discussed water services, I said that there seems to be a wish among some Deputies to maintain apartheid in respect of people who live in rural locations who are deprived of basic services and must provide those services for themselves. I am speaking about the provision of water and refuse services, which were dismantled primarily because of a campaign that was led unsuccessfully by people who led the population up to the top of the hill, told them not to pay their refuse charges, abandoned them and then wondered how the service got privatised. Certain people must contribute to their own road maintenance through local improvement schemes and community improvement schemes because if they do not do it, nobody else will do it for them. I am sure the Acting Chairman is aware of this in his own constituency. This involves a group of ordinary decent Irish citizens. Deputy Higgins uses the phrase "ordinary working people". Ordinary working people live in rural communities as well and they are sick to the back teeth of listening to people give out about the fact that they are finally going to get something from a Government in terms of the provision of their water.

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