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

I will take 30 seconds back from the Chair.

The question of democracy goes to the heart of the debate. I reiterate what has been said in the House many times. More than 90 Members were elected on the promise of the abolition of water charges. To my left - physically but not politically - is the party that did the biggest S-turn in history. It is against water charges, then it is for water charges. I refer back to the late Brian Lenihan's final budget speech in which he announced that there would be a full recovery of cost provision for water services through water charges and he intended to prepare proposals for implementation as appropriate with a view to starting the charge in 2012-13. Then the party announced in its election manifesto in February of this year that it was prepared to scrap water charges. They then announced they were prepared to delay the charges before going with the Government to suspend them. The word, "suspension", never appeared in any of their manifestos, speeches or other documents.

I want to address some of my comments to the Labour Party. We all held think tanks before we returned to the Dáil and there were various sessions. The Labour Party session was among the most interesting because both councillor Rebecca Moynihan and Deputy Brendan Howlin, the leader of the party, admitted that they had made a mistake on water. I see that Deputy Jan O'Sullivan has left the Chamber. If the Labour Party made a mistake on water, are its Members going to rectify that today in the eyes of the public by supporting this motion for the abolition of water charges? The mistake they made was to bring in the principle of charging for it.

To my left and right, physically and politically, a sham of democracy is taking place. Both Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party are dancing around this issue and it is about time they lived up to what democracy entails. At the moment they are doing a Pat Rabbitte, in promising what they want the electorate to hear but then, when they get into power, reversing that promise. Pat Rabbittism will go down in history for that and today we have Fianna Fáilism and Labourism, which is literally lying to the people and then implementing strategies and spending money on legal cases and on policing in communities to the point of oppression. That has to end and this is an opportunity for both those parties to own up and tell the truth to people. Otherwise the meaning of this House, and of democracy, will be lost in the pile of crap that is being bandied around in connection with what is a most unpopular move. They should take the Apple tax and take tax from the rich. Then they would not have the problem of having to tax nurses and teachers further.

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