Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In his absence, I thank Deputy Micheál Martin for the backhanded compliment on the issue of water this morning. He and his colleagues in Fianna Fáil know a thing or two about verbal dexterity. Given the fact his party's U-turns on the issue over the years have turned into veritable cartwheels, "verbal gymnastics" is probably a more appropriate description.

It is worth reminding the House of the positions of Fianna Fáil on this matter in recent years. In 2009, Deputy Micheál Martin and his party signed up to a programme for Government with the Green Party to introduce water charges. In 2010, Fianna Fáil, with Deputy Micheál Martin in the Cabinet, signed up to a programme for national recovery that included water charges. Only a few months later, it set a date of 2012 for the charges' introduction. On the basis of the figures in the document in question, that would have cost the average household €400 per year. Just in case the Deputy suggests that this was at a time when he was not the leader of Fianna Fáil, his party's manifesto in the first general election that he fought as its leader in 2011 made a commitment to continue the introduction of water metering and, by default, water charges.

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