Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to speak on this motion. In recent times, we have heard a lot of talk about new politics. When it comes to discussing water, however, it is old politics at their very best. We see the populism of Sinn Féin, who are literally wasting time on this particular issue by introducing this motion. I listened to Deputy Ó Broin's lovely rhetoric about how he is supporting people in the street. I would like to remind him of his miraculous conversion in October 2014 when Deputy Paul Murphy arrived on the scene in Dublin south-west. Up to then, Deputy Adams was willing to pay water charges on some of his houses in the North. I was not quite aware of which house he would pay water charges for, but he was prepared to pay them. All of a sudden, however, we had a miraculous change of direction. Populism at its best is what we are talking about here - nothing less. For Fianna Fáil, it is 1977 all over again, when rates were abolished. We have suffered the consequences of that ever since.

The main reason Irish Water was established was that the system was not working. We now need a new system in place to ensure we have water supplies in future. Those who have been paying up to now have been paying for everything, and they are well aware of that fact. They are fed up paying for everything and they want a change.

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