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

We oppose the guillotining of important legislation but there is something especially cynical about guillotining this Bill, which has been rushed from start to finish. In its haste to get these matters through, the Government got the justice committee to sit last Friday, which was most unusual. It has allowed an hour or an hour and a half to scrutinise legislation that proposes attachment orders, court proceedings and the facility for the State to pickpocket people's wages, social welfare and pensions in respect of utility bills, but particularly in respect of water charges. That is what this is all about and everybody knows it. It is part of the last-ditch attempt to enforce a tax and a charge that has been comprehensively discredited and rejected. The Government's move today, as with last week, to ram it through is despicable and cynical. It is yet another attempt to frighten into paying what is an unjust and unfair tax those who struggle and for whom the Tánaiste once cared, or so she said. The cynicism of this, quite apart from the verbal diarrhoea or verbal constipation - one can take one's pick on that score - is stunning. It is sneaky and bad parliamentary practice, but it is much more than that. It is recognised outside this Chamber for exactly what it is: yet another episode in the Government's attempt to strong-arm people into coughing up a tax that is unfair, unjust and, for many families, unpayable.

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