Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend this motion, tabled by 39 Teachtaí, calling for the immediate abolition of domestic water charges. The motion is finally being discussed after weeks of stymying of the discussion by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Neither party wanted Teachtaí to have their say on the issue of water charges and Irish Water while they conspired behind closed doors in the partnership negotiations to push this issue down the road. It is worth noting that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have voted together on five separate occasions already in the Thirty-second Dáil to block this motion from being tabled.

I made the case at the time and I make it again tonight that water charges should be dealt with here in an open, democratic and transparent fashion befitting the judgment the electorate made on water charges during the general election. Every Deputy elected to the Dáil has an obligation to fulfil the commitments he or she made to the electorate. A clear majority of Deputies, as the motion says, sought and won a mandate to abolish Irish Water and scrap water charges. That is our view and our mandate. It is also Fianna Fáil’s mandate. Its manifesto, not once but, as Deputy Ó Broin said, on numerous occasions, called for the abolition of Irish Water and the scrapping of water charges. Nowhere does it say anything about the suspension of charges, kicking the issue down the road to an Oireachtas committee or maintaining the mechanism for charging citizens on the Statute Book.

If Fianna Fáil were serious about fulfilling its election commitments, it would support the motion before the Dáil this evening. I wrote to the Fianna Fáil Leader, Deputy Micheál Martin, last week asking him to support the motion which was specifically worded to accommodate Fianna Fáil’s manifesto position and its election commitments, but he has not responded. Despite this, Fianna Fáil has this evening tabled an amendment to the motion heralding the suspension of water charges and its agreement with Fine Gael as if this were good enough.

It is not good enough. Water charges have met their end, and so has Irish Water. That fact must be accepted and it is the rise of people power over the past two years with hundreds of thousands of citizens coming out to protest against water charges which deserves the credit for this seismic shift in politics in this State. A total of 500,000 citizens also voted for Right2Change candidates in February. It is a slow process but there is a fluidity about our politics at this time which is to be welcomed. The previous Government used its majority to railroad regressive legislation through the Oireachtas, including water charges, the establishment of Irish Water and the family home tax. All were the brainchild of Fianna Fáil’s deal with the troika. Sinn Féin wants to see a society based on equality and fairness. That means building a fair, new tax system and ending unfair regressive taxes that penalise working families and vulnerable citizens.

In the North our party stopped the imposition of water charges. We want to dismantle Irish Water in the South and replace it with a new model of governance and a funding stream that is fully accountable to the Oireachtas. We will oppose any attempt to privatise water services. We stopped the British Tories from privatising water services in the North. We will do the same when and if Irish Tories try to do that in this State. I commend all the Deputies who brought together this collaborative Bill. We want to see also the referendum which would bring about public ownership which would be enshrined in the Constitution. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil say there are no plans to privatise services. Surely if that is true, they will have no problem supporting a referendum to this effect. I commend this motion to the Dáil. I urge all Deputies, particularly those who received a mandate, to support this motion this evening.

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