Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It has been reported that the Independent Ministers in the Government have sought and received formal advice as to whether they are entitled to support in the House a Bill they have been advised is repugnant to the Constitution. The Attorney General has not changed and, as such, I presume the advice has not changed from that received from the time my own party was in government and the same question arose.

Regarding the water services Bill that is before the House, has the Government been advised as to whether its members can support legislation the sole purpose of which is to defeat what has now been clarified is an obligation of European law? Is it not clear from the reply of environment Commissioner Vella to the parliamentary question of Marian Harkin, MEP that the derogation exempting us from water charges was ended by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party in government when they failed to apply for an opt-out in the management plans due in December 2009 and instead introduced the concept of water charges in 2010? If the Tánaiste accepts this, does she not also accept that we are bound by the EU law obligation and that such an obligation, under the decisions of our courts, takes primacy over our domestic law and Constitution?

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