Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate people in every town, townland, village and city, including Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and on every housing estate who for the past four years have put their shoulders to the wheel and fought tirelessly to see this day come. Irish Water and water charges may not have been abolished, but we are witnessing the beginning of the end. Although we have not gone the whole nine yards, as the previous speaker noted, there is a major chink in the armour of those who pursued an agenda of water charges. I congratulate those who fought and boycotted water charges, endured police harassment, went before the courts or sent to jail. Organised by the Right2Water movement and other groups, people turned out on the streets again and again in their tens of thousands.

During the general election campaign the Fianna Fáil Party stole the clothes of the left in order that its members could portray themselves as warriors leading the fight against Irish Water and water charges. Its manifesto declared it would abolish Irish Water and water charges. The U-turn the party made today illustrates the point that what matters is that more than 90 Deputies were elected on the basis of getting rid of water charges. Today, it has been finally recognised that democracy must play a role in the House. It was for this reason that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were forced to park this issue for a period and begin to negotiate on how they would deal with it.

We believe that eventually we must see the abolition of water charges and Irish Water. It is only a matter of time before that happens as the people will not get off the streets and will punish those who betray the vote they gave them.

This is important when we look at the history of Irish Water, about which nobody wants to talk. I believe the Dublin 4 set and the media do not really get the people. They do not really get what is wrong when we say we are not paying water charges and when we get up at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. to block the installation of water meters. They do not get it that some people are willing to end up in prison or march consistently. When we look back at the formation of Irish Water, we see an absolute debacle. If €2 million is owed to the people who paid water charges, let those who made a bags of the issue pay them back, such as IBM which was paid nearly €49 million in a contract; Accenture which was paid €17 million; others which were paid €13 million; Ernst & Young which was paid €4 million; Goodbody's which was paid €2 million; KPMG which was paid €2 million; Mr. John Tierney, head of Irish Water, who paid €200,000, plus bonuses; as well as other CEOs who also scandalously received bonuses. The scandal went on and on. We also had the Siteserv scandal, with Mr. Denis O'Brien in the middle of it.

People do not forget this kind of cronyism, corruption and disgraceful way of treating our most important national resources. Water is our most important natural resource. Wars have been and will be fought over it. It is not a commodity that can just be treated in the same as any other. We can live up to 70 days without food, as hunger strikers in the North and elsewhere have proved, but we cannot survive for more than three to five days without water. That is the reason we must ensure it is publicly controlled and funded through progressive taxation that provides for the wealth to be shared. The people have been overburdened by austerity and taxed again and again on their homes. They have lost their bin services to private companies which are pushing prices up by extraordinary amounts. They know that this could happen with water, which is why they are determined to fight with every breath in their body, often to the extent of going to prison or making significant sacrifices in their communities. They want to ensure the politicians they have elected who are sitting in this House and claim it does not really matter whether we postpone water charges or abolish Irish Water know that this matters. They will know it come the next election. If they promise something, they should deliver. That is what democracy should be like, rather than the debacle we witnessed today, when we had to vote on whether we should have a vote. Of course, we should have a vote on this issue. That is what we were elected to do.

It is about time there was real democracy, rather than the sham democracy whereby the very wealthy and the quangos are looked after. We need to end this, but given the the co-operation Fianna Fáil is about to give Fine Gael, we are going to see more of it. The people need to stay alert and in the movement because we are going to push the whole nine yards, until Irish water which is clinging onto the edge of the grave is kicked into it and buried.

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