Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach has confirmed what I suspected, namely, that this appointment was the result of deliberations between the Government and the Fianna Fáil Party. What about the Dáil? Has everything been reduced to the supply and confidence arrangement, which was all about getting Fianna Fáil off the hook on this issue and getting Fine Gael back into power? The expert commission was nothing other than a fig leaf to do just that.

In three separate sections in its manifesto, Fianna Fáil gave clear commitments to scrap water charges and Irish Water. The Taoiseach and the Fianna Fáil leader do not admit to that. Instead, they call it new politics. It is all about expediency. The fact is the Minister, no matter about whatever arrangement he has with Fianna Fáil, stepped entirely beyond his remit when he announced this appointment to the chair of this committee. I have asked the Taoiseach a hundred times over the past six years will he stop this comedy of errors and simply establish the fact that water charges need to be scrapped. That is what Sinn Féin has done in the North and is what the Taoiseach should do here. He should put an end to this perpetual ongoing farce and scrap the water charges.

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