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

With this set of amendments, in particular Amendment No. 21, we are getting to the heart of the Government’s way of doing business, and why it is in effect ramming a new legislation through an existing Bill that has nothing to do with water charges. The approach can be summed up in the word “bullying”. The Bill is about scaremongering and using certain tactics to push up the levels of payment, by targeting people who are more vulnerable, partly as a result of the actions and lack of action on the part of the Government and previous Governments in terms of security of tenure for those who are renting. The intention is to target them and attempt to force them or scare them into paying. Of course the Government has learned from the best. It is a pale reflection of the kind of bullying and terror being inflicted on the Greek people at the moment in an attempt to get them to vote in the way that the European establishment would like them to vote.

In the first case, it is clearly discriminatory. It adds a second obligation on tenants to pay the water charges. One could ask why that is necessary. Everybody is meant to pay the water charges. It is the law that we must do so. There is a significant campaign encouraging people not to pay, of which I am part. I am not paying my water charges and I encourage others not to do so but everybody is already subject to the law which says people have to pay water charges, so why discriminate against tenants relative to homeowners and give them an extra obligation to pay? What is the justification for that discrimination against tenants?

Why is the measure needed? If people were paying the water charges, would the measure have been introduced? The Minister, Deputy Kelly, has joined us in the Chamber only in the past couple of hours for the debate.

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