Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to speak on amendment No. 21 and the Minister's proposals to force people to register, regardless of whether they are the occupier. Other speakers have outlined the difficulty this creates for tenants who are obliged to register with Irish Water within 20 days of this legislation being passed and the question of whether the landlord has to register as well. It also affects individual householders who have not registered. Perhaps I am wrong but from my reading of it, the relevant section says that the person must register with Irish Water as a customer and confirm whether or not the dwelling is their principal private residence. If somebody is obliged to register and confirm that it is their principal private residence, it has the same effect. Basically, this is targeting everybody who has not registered with Irish Water regardless of whether they are landlords or tenants.

It shows that the Government's policy has failed. Its attempt to introduce a second charge for water services for citizens across the country is a failure when one sees that it has to act in this way, introduce it in such significant legislation and bypass discussion on Second and Committee Stages about the potential impact of legislation such as this. It shows the complete failure of Government policy relating to Irish Water. It shows all the citizens who have stood in principled opposition to the introduction of a second water charge that they are right to stand together and oppose this unfair and unjust water tax. It is vitally important that the message that the citizens who are standing together against Irish Water are defeating the Government and Irish Water goes out here today from the House. I call on people to continue to stand together in the face of the draconian measures that have been introduced by the Government.

What will gall people across the country is the underhand way it has been dealt with and the way it has been slid in as an amendment on Report Stage when it should be amending legislation in its own right as a water services Bill. The citizens know what the Government is doing and that they have it on the ropes. Clearly, the roll-out of Irish Water has been a failure, people are refusing to pay the water bills and the boycott of water charges exists across the country because if this was not the case and if there was any sense in Irish Water and the Government that people were signing up to and paying this second water tax, the Government would be releasing figures on a regular basis showing the percentage of people who have paid and complied with the Government's demands relating to Irish Water. It shows the success of the campaign. People should take great encouragement from that. It shows that this Government has been forced into doing things like this in an underhand way to impose a potential class A fine on citizens who take a principled opposition to its policy on this austerity tax and this further attack on citizens.

It shows also that this Government has not got a mandate to continue with the implementation of Irish Water and with the imposition of the second tax on citizens. It has a huge impact on tenants and potential tenants. In cases where householders decide not to register with Irish Water, being the owner-occupiers they cannot be evicted for non-compliance with this section and will at least have a roof over their heads if they refuse to comply. However, tenants are in a very precarious situation, as if Government policy had not left them in a precarious enough situation with the complete and utter refusal to deal with the rent allowance and rent supplement and the refusal of this Government to introduce any measures for rent certainty and certainty for tenancies. The Government hides behind the constitutional provisions when it says it cannot do anything about that. It leaves tenants in a very vulnerable position.

We will all take strength from the position we are in because we know that this is a Government that is defeated on this issue and we know that the days of Irish Water are numbered because the Government has to resort to this kind of tactic to threaten people and potentially to impose fines if they do not register with Irish Water within the timeframe the Government has set out in this legislation. If the Government wanted to convince people of the argument and the need to pay this second water tax they would not need to introduce measures like this to hide behind and to force people into it. People were concerned and were frightened by the Government's imposition of the property tax but they have decided that they have had enough. They have stood against the water charges and they will continue with the boycott campaign against the charges. The other side of it is that not registering is a form of opposition but not registering does not matter if a person is not going to pay. The boycott campaign will continue and Irish Water will collapse on the basis that it cannot raise the revenue it needs to keep going.

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