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

It is clear that the purpose of the amendments is to shift the balance in favour of the creditor. The same applies to amendment No. 50, which allows the creditor to serve the deductions order to the Department of Social Protection rather than the clerk of the court. It is aimed at speeding up the process from the point of view of the creditor. Under the Bill as currently drafted, the creditor does not get the statement of means, while under the Government's amendment, it will.

The more general problem that the Government has is that, although there may be a variety of options to pay the water charges, people are not taking any of them. Instead, we have this new terminology about a suite of measures designed to make people pay. The problem is there is nothing in the suite of measures which is going to bully people into paying. There is nothing in here, compared to all the threats about direct deductions and everything else, that can break the non-payment of 57% of people. The likelihood is that, of the 43% who paid, there is a substantial number who are opposed to water charges but paid under threat or propaganda. They will now see that there are no penalties for non-payment until July 2016 and Irish Water cannot do anything to get the money. Why would they spend more money on something that is going to be abolished? Why throw good money after bad? It is clear that if the water charges are abolished, it is extremely unlikely they would get refunds.

The figures are only going to go in one direction and it will be very difficult for the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, to pronounce himself extraordinarily satisfied and delighted with them as they go up to 60% and 65% non-payment. The Government will have a massive crisis on the issue. All this legislation is worthless from the point of view of forcing people to pay.

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