Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In its original incarnation the Environmental (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014 dealt with matters including dog breeding, dog licences and Killarney National Park. The Government will need a flexible interpretation of the law if it wants to explain why this Bill can be used as a vehicle to force landlords to inform Irish Water who is renting their properties, make it compulsory that charges be paid prior to the sale of a house, include in tenancy agreements an obligation to pay the Irish Water tax and make local authorities the enforcers of the tax. It is a bit of a stretch by any standard to include these matters in the Bill. This is just the latest episode in which the Government has demonstrated not only contempt for the Dáil, which we could probably stomach, but also utter contempt for the citizens outside this House. Several months ago I asked the Tánaiste to show her hand on the penalties being cooked up for people who were unable to or would not pay these unfair water charges.

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