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

I am sure you have strong links in that party and perhaps you could convince them to bring forward the legislation. The Unionist Minister showed some interest in the Bill prior to the election and I hope he continues with it because Sinn Féin is anxious to get the legislation through.

A system of charges was put in place by the British Government prior to the re-establishment of the Assembly and Executive in 2007. We gave a solemn commitment that we would do our level best as part of a multi-party government - it subsequently became a five-party government - under power sharing. The Ministers will be aware that the way the system works is different to here because of the different circumstances. We used the influence we had to prevent water charges from being introduced. The Sinn Féin Minister, Conor Murphy, succeeded in that regard and thus far, the situation has held up and the other parties, including the SDLP share our position. The Social Democratic Labour Party, SDLP, is a sister party of the party of the Minister, Deputy Kelly. It shares our position on the matter and we have worked very well together on it-----

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