Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Respect for democracy is a very simple matter when it comes to this issue. A majority of Deputies elected to this House gave pledges to get rid of water charges. That is democracy. The Members opposite should accept it. We know their position. They have lost the popular debate. They should accept it. They often say that there are more important issues like health and housing. We agree, so get this issue off the pitch. The people have decided. They debated it for two years. They disagree with their position and they should simply respect democracy.

On the question of honesty, we want the rehabilitation of the water infrastructure and water conservation more than the Members opposite but they are not being honest about their plans. Do they know how Irish Water's investment programme compares even to what was being invested in 2009, and it was not enough then? Even at the highest spend, in Irish Water's plans, it will be less by €100 million or more than we were spending in 2009. The claim, therefore, that Irish Water had a plan to ramp up the investment in water infrastructure is factually incorrect.

We then consider all the waste, including 29 staff on €100,000 or more a year, 21 on salaries of €90,000 to €100,000, all the bonuses, the money that went out to private contractors like Denis O'Brien's company, all the consultants and so on. Money that should have been going to fix the water infrastructure was instead being used to line people's pockets. We want that money going to the front line. As the Minister rightly said, the people always pay. It was the Members opposite who were saying that someone had to pay for water when they knew we always paid for water and we always will. The issue is whether we pay for it fairly or disproportionately impose the burden on the least well off. That is the effect of water charges.

They were also being dishonest on the issue of privatisation. The EUROSTAT ruling confirmed what we said. In order for the Irish Water model to work, it had to ramp up the charges and reduce State support for Irish Water, leading to privatisation. That is what it said. The Minister should be honest about it.

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