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

The clock is ticking for the Government because it seems as if it has given up on trying to pursue the question of water charges. It is to be hoped that after this debate we will well and truly bury the question of Irish Water as well.

It is unfortunate for the public that the motion before the House was not, as per normal democratic processes, brought to the floor of the House 12 weeks ago when we were elected. It was brought to the floor but was ignored for a long time despite a lot of protestations. Deputies in the House tried to make sure that democracy had its day and the more than 90 Deputies who were elected to vote for the abolition of water charges in the Dáil did not get the chance to do so until today. We now have our chance and we will see how things pan out in terms of the mishmash of coalitions, arrangements and loyalties that have been established in the House since the formation of a Government.

There is no doubt that those of us on the Opposition side of the House are absolutely committed to seeing through the principle of the abolition of water charges and Irish Water, as we fought for that and represented the voices of tens of thousands of people who marched and boycotted the charges. Many of them came up against pressure and bullying from the law on the streets and were coaxed and cajoled into paying bills. We are now at a point where that resistance has been met by the election of a majority of Deputies in the House who are opposed to water charges. That is why this motion is terribly important.

Those of us on this side of the House who advocated for the abolition of water charges and have helped to build a widespread movement from Donegal to Dingle to represent that sentiment among people are not opposed to the water infrastructure and environment in the country being significantly improved through dealing with the water and sewerage infrastructure. The problem is that successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments, in coalition with the Green Party and the Labour Party, have over the past 12 to 14 years totally ignored the investment that is required for water infrastructure. We want to see things turned on their heads and improved, not by penalising people who did not cause the problem, namely, the ordinary people of the country. We do not want them to be penalised unfairly.

It is always the poor who end up paying the most when stealth taxes and service charges are applied. Instead, the Government should implement a fair and progressive taxation system that ensures those at the very top of society pay more of the share of what is required to deal with society's problems. A tiny minority of people at the top have the most and they need to understand that it is time that they coughed up in terms of taxes on corporations, wealth and financial transactions to release the required resources to deal with water infrastructure.

In the long-term we hope that, starting with this Government, a progressive system of retrofitting for homes and buildings with the sort of facilities that will ensure the saving of clean treated water will be introduced. There is no point flushing the jacks with clean treated water. There is no need to wash one's body with clean, treated drinkable water. There are other ways and means. The modern world is well capable of separating water through the retrofitting of buildings, dual flush toilets and grey water collection. There are many ways to improve the environment.

It must be said that most water wastage happens through negligence of the infrastructure and the leakage of clean, treated water through the system. The biggest consumers of water are not individual consumers like the people in this House and those outside it watching the debate, but big industry and agribusiness. One should watch this space because we are going to come under pressure through various means from industry, privatisation and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, to bring fracking into this country, which is the biggest waste of water that has been seen on the planet. We must resist that and link it to resistance to water charges and the privatisation of water. I thank the Acting Chairman for bearing with me. I am sorry for being late.

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