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

It is not simply water charges that Deputy Cowen and Fianna Fáil have kicked to touch. They have kicked to touch on bins, education equality and an investigation into NAMA. They have done nothing on housing and they intend to do no more than those in government are doing. They have similar policies to Fine Gael and they are absolutely and utterly similar on water charges.

Those of us who marched and who built the protests against metering as well as the boycott know full well that what gave this issue the prominence it has in this House was the actions of the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of our citizens who marched, protested and voted in this direction.

I will press the amendment on subsection (f). There was a reference to the commission but obviously we are not going to have any say on the composition of that commission. I have already spoken about it in the House and Deputy Murphy spoke about it earlier as well. It is utterly loaded with people whose professions and histories are entirely in favour of water charges and the privatisation of water. They include academics, scientists, professionals and ex-politicians. That is disgraceful. It is a kick in the teeth to every man, woman and child who marched in this country. Shame on Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

However, I want to move the amendment formally-----

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