Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Fáiltím roimh an deis labhairt ar an ábhar tábhachtach seo. I welcome the opportunity to participate in this debate and will be as brief as I can in putting a few concise points on the record.

This day, and the stalemate we have arrived at in this debate, marks a sad departure. We are seeing the substitution of principled politics with popular politics, and that is not a good turn for the country, democracy, the environment, the economy or politics as a whole. I regret that we have chosen to go this route and I would like to register in my own way my thoughts on the matter.

It is a retrograde step to abolish or to suspend charges - we can play with the words - because the reality of the charging system is that water will have to be paid for somehow, and the €270 million that is collected per annum by Irish Water every year will now arguably and probably have to come out of roads or health. I have not heard anybody decide yet which one of those will suffer. It is also indiscriminate in the extreme to abolish or suspend charges and give a cheque of €160 back to each and every household, irrespective of its means.

A lot of myths about Irish Water and the regime of charging for water are in circulation, much of which was aided by certain elements in the media, which are very hungry to see near anarchy and excitement. One can see the said-same media starting to shift in their approach now and we will see them taking a very responsible attitude in the future towards the charging for water and the potential abolition of Irish Water-----

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