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

Our view on the matter is very straightforward. Some 90 Deputies were elected to this House on a mandate of ending water charges and 39 of us have tabled the motion, as Deputy Adams stated earlier.

I welcome the fact Fianna Fáil has abandoned a long-standing commitment to water charges. Why has it done so? It has done so under great pressure from the hundreds of thousands of people in the Right2Water movement who have campaigned against what we believe to be an unjust charge. It has done so under huge pressure from the Deputies in this House, including those from Sinn Féin, the Anti Austerity Alliance, People Before Profit, Independents 4 Change and other Independents. This is not about some road-to-Damascus conversion to a belief in a fairer society; this is Fianna Fáil doing what Fianna Fáil does best. Therefore, what should one do now? In our view, the Deputies who have not done so should put their names to the motion the rest of us have signed. It was deliberately worded to be consistent with their election manifesto. They should insist that the motion be tabled for debate and decision here and then they should vote with us.

Deputy Micheál Martin was correct earlier when he said passing a motion will not change the law. We are not suggesting it would but it would achieve two important ends. First, it would give expression to the democratic will of the majority of voters who voted for Deputies to end water charges. In doing so, it would heap enormous pressure not only on Fine Gael but also on Fianna Fáil to ensure this unjust charge is scrapped.

Irrespective of what Fianna Fáil does, Sinn Féin will continue to keep its word. We believe water is a human right and the Minister is correct in that regard. Since it is a human right, we believe it should be delivered on the basis of need and not ability to pay. On those grounds, we believe general taxation is the most appropriate way of funding water delivery from a social justice perspective.

The Minister is also wrong on the water framework directive, and he knows it. The derogation is in Article 9.4. It was not given away. It is in place to be invoked and negotiated with the Commission at any stage. It is on those grounds that Sinn Féin believes this House should debate and vote on the motion to scrap Irish Water, scrap water charges and enshrine in the Constitution public ownership of water services.

I suspect the reason Fianna Fáil has voted with Fine Gael to block the tabling of the motion is because, at some stage in the future, its members will seek again to do another U-turn on the issue. Instead of kicking the can down the road with a commission on the future of water services and charges and presenting it as some kind of victory for the democratic will to abolish the charge, they will turn once again and people will be left having to foot the bill for the broken promises of their party. Sinn Féin will not tolerate it nor will its colleagues in the Right2Water movement. Therefore, let us debate the motion, take the vote and force the scrapping of this unjust charge.

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