Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Government would like this to be a debate about pay-by-weight because that currently is the favoured method of the Government to green austerity measures and that is what it does. However, this is not a debate about pay-by-weight in the abstract; it is about how people over the past month or so have received letters explaining to them - without spelling it out fully - that they would experience massive price hikes. In particular, the standing charges were being doubled or trebled and some weight charges also were increasing. It is about a rip-off of people and price gouging by the companies. This happened because the door was left open through a statutory instrument by the former Minister, Deputy Kelly. Members of the Anti-Austerity Alliance-People before Profit, AAA-PBP, have been stating clearly and attempted in their motion to point out that this door must be closed. I do not believe the Minister is closing the door with the approach he is taking. This is why I do not believe the AAA-PBP is being unreasonable in continuing to criticise the Government's approach. While the Minister is closing over the door a good bit, it is left slightly ajar and in one year's time in particular, it potentially will burst open with these vultures who seek to maximise their profits.

The AAA-PBP stated and continues to state the door can be closed clearly, again by the method of a statutory instrument, which freezes in legislation the standing charge and which imposes maximum per weight charges for black and brown and with green at zero. The AAA-PBP's full position, for the benefit of Deputy Fitzpatrick, is clear as I tried but obviously failed to explain in the radio interview. Our full position is for charges to go, for privatisation to be reversed and for the bin services to be brought back into council control because we believe privatisation has been a disaster. The AAA-PBP Members have also tried to use the debate to illustrate this point. However, this is a bad fudge, which is modelled on the bad fudge of the water charges. It is the same process, albeit simply condensed into a short period. The reason this bad fudge will take place and that the Government will get away with it is because of Fianna Fáil. Had Fianna Fáil stuck to its rhetoric on the issue, the Government would be facing defeat on this motion right now, would be facing defeat in the Seanad tomorrow and would have no choice but to move more decisively to close the door permanently, as opposed to it coming back in 12 months' time. As with many such issues, Fianna Fáil holds the key to how this issue will be resolved or, as in this case, resolved unsatisfactorily.

How does one explain the position of Fianna Fáil? Deputy Cowen explained in this Chamber that one cannot be responsible one week and irresponsible the next week. This was from a party and a Deputy that obviously loaded us with 42% of the cost of the European banking crisis for which we are still paying. However, I also do not see how it is irresponsible to vote for a motion that encapsulates what is one's political position and what one has been saying. That is not irresponsible, it is democratic for people to express their mandate. The skies would not fall in, were the Government to lose a vote tonight or were it to lose in the Seanad and were it to be forced to bring in the necessary changes. In a radio interview this morning, Deputy Breathnach stated he agreed with the motion, that it sums up Fianna Fáil's position but that the AAA-PBP has some ulterior secret motives and for that reason, Fianna Fáil cannot vote for it with those secret motives being the openly stated case about opposition to privatisation and to charges full stop. These are not credible reasons as to why Fianna Fáil is taking this position. The reality is that what is expressed is that Fianna Fáil is the third leg of the Government and this has encapsulated in miniature, in the space of approximately two weeks, new politics as it actually is. I do not refer to the fairy tale version, whereby everybody forgets about the different ideologies and different class interests that are represented in this House and where everybody agrees, but to the reality of how politics is operating now because the Government continues not to be concerned about the attitudes or the effects of things on ordinary people until forced to be. The only Members speaking in here on behalf of ordinary people are those of the left, with the AAA-PBP to the fore using its Private Members' time effectively in this case. However, the difference is the establishment is extremely weak. It is weak in this Chamber and there is a confident people outside the House who felt able to mobilise and to put pressure on the different parties, with the result that Fianna Fáil then was forced into a position of raising this matter in here and then, just like with the water charges, agreed to a bad compromise and fudge that allows it to come back on the agenda in the future. However, people should draw the lesson that confidence is contagious. We will take this as a partial victory and will move on to further partial victories, all the while preparing to bring about the fundamental change needed, which can only be brought about by building a mass left-wing party to be a voice for and to mobilise for ordinary people and to establish a left-wing government with socialist policies.

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