Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My, my, how the Deputy's memory has faded. I remember him saying he would pay his water charges. I also remember Sinn Féin being very responsible and saying it would make the necessary contributions. Then when it heard the sound of marching feet out in Tallaght it decided to reverse engines. Far be it for Deputy Adams to say the Fine Gael Party and Fianna Fáil Party are out of line here.

The Fine Gael Party had a very clear view on water charges all along. We wanted a national utility, a fair contribution regime and a metering process to adjudicate on that. However, in order to make the Government work, we sat down with the Fianna Fáil Party and put in place a very clear, deliberative process to deal with the question of water. This was to be done in three stages. First, an expert commission was to be appointed to look at the entire range of issues completely objectively over a period of six months and report by the end of November. Second, a special Oireachtas committee was to be set up to consider the commission's report, which it will do. Third, we were to have a vote in the Oireachtas within a month of the special Oireachtas committee completing its consideration of the report. That vote is due to take place at the end of March 2017.

As this was a deliberative process between the two parties and part of the confidence and supply arrangement and agreement between the Fine Gael Party and Fianna Fáil Party, it is obviously necessary to have somebody who is competent, objective and capable of chairing deliberations on a complex issue such as this as Chairman of the Oireachtas committee. An Seanadóir Ó Céidigh is an outstanding person, a businessman who is used to seeing clearly through complex issues and making decisions. I am sure he will fulfil his remit in this regard in a very clear, objective and fulfilling way. In that sense, the Minister and his opposite number in the Fianna Fáil Party discussed who would be appropriate to chair the committee. This arose from the deliberative process between the Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil parties established as part of the confidence and supply arrangement.

The committee will have 20 members, 16 of whom will be Deputies and four of whom will be Senators. The 16 Deputies will include five Government, four Fianna Fáil and two Sinn Fein Deputies and one Deputy each from the Labour Party, the Anti-Austerity Alliance and People Before Profit, the Rural Alliance, Independents 4 Change and the Green Party-Social Democrats group. While the committee is larger than what we are accustomed to, the intention is to try to achieve as broad a consensus as possible on this important issue. The number of members reflects the aim of everyone to ensure that every party and group is involved in the deliberations. That is the position.

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