Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Anti-Austerity Alliance supports the concept of retention of water services in public ownership and the Bill. We heard it said last year in the Dáil and the year before when the issue of water charges was being debated that nobody in this House had ever intended to privatise or supported the idea of privatisation of water services. It is clear that the intention of Fianna Fáil and the troika, carried on by Fine Gael and the Labour Party, was to privatise Irish Water. We first saw the installation of meters, at a cost of hundreds of millions of euro, to charge for water usage. This was followed by the introduction of charges, which is always a precursor to the sale of any commodity, and the establishment of Irish Water, with its bonuses, directors, CEOs and so on. What else was it but a model for privatisation?

The previous Government would not agree to what is being proposed in the Bill. The furthest it went was to agree to holding a plebiscite which would not have the same scope as a referendum. Any Government or entity that believes in privatised health care would privatise water services. A Government that believes people should pay to be well would have no qualms about charging for water.

We support the Bill because of there is a bigger picture. This Bill would not stop water charges being reintroduced or remaining because one could still charge for water within the framework of a public water company. Some countries have that. Indeed, there were some trade union leaders who supported water charges and favoured the likes of this Bill. In fact, we were told on the radio today that Mr. Jack O'Connor led a revolution for this Bill. Mr. O'Connor was completely out of the movement against the water charges. Some of them introduced this to distract from the central issue of water being charged for. Water charges have been sunk for only one reason and that is the non-payment and protest movement against them two years ago. It was a protest movement on a local scale and a national basis. The ongoing advocacy of non-payment was critical to making the charging of water unviable. One cannot privatise something that is not paying for itself. Financially and politically, the charges were made unviable by that very important call from some people within the anti-water charges movement.

It is funny that Fianna Fáil is willing to support this Bill but was unwilling to support a motion that would abolish water charges. I wonder why. This is the most basic issue they must be seen by their voters to support. I say to Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Labour Party and the Independents who support water charges that they will try to reintroduce them at their peril. Good luck with it if they do.

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