Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are days when this place has all the hallmarks of a twilight zone divorced from the real world and this is certainly one of them. The penny does not seem to have dropped with Fine Gael and the Labour Party that they lost the election. They were utterly hammered and their policies absolutely rejected by the Irish people. Of course, they never had a mandate to bring in Irish Water or water charges in the first place, having lied to the electorate in the previous election to this one. Their betrayal sparked the biggest movement of people power in this State for decades and it is as a result of that movement of non-compliance and civil disobedience on the part of citizens who self-organised that Fine Gael has been dragged screaming and kicking into its backroom deal with Fianna Fáil on the issue.

We should not be here discussing a fudge. Following the recent election, the mandate of this House and of a majority of the Deputies who were elected is for the abolition of Irish Water, the ending of water charges as a direct charge and the enshrining of water as a public service funded from central taxation as part of our Constitution. Water is and should be a human right and we have one of the lowest levels of water poverty in Europe, which is something about which we should be very proud. People should be able to access water on the basis of need rather than the ability to pay and I find it nauseating to listen to Fine Gael and Labour Party Deputies saying they need the money. Ordinary citizens have paid for this but the Government slashed taxes to wealthy earners in successive budgets. Had they chosen to collect that tax we would have had more than enough money to invest in our water supply to bring in the conservation measures that would have an impact and improve the service.

I agree with those who said we should be voting on this. We should not be facilitating a fudge by dragging it out. The sooner we abolish Irish Water the cheaper it will be and I have no doubt that day will eventually come because the Irish citizens will not tolerate anything less.

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