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

The chairman or chairwoman of this proposed joint committee will have a crucial influence on what is brought back to the Dáil, which we keep hearing will have the final say. What is likely to come back is presumably what was recommended by the commission and therefore, who the Chairman is and the make-up of the committee matters. From what we can see, the committee is made up of a majority of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and those who are sympathetic to either of those parties and to the idea of water charges. In other words the committee is already stuffed full of an in-built majority.

No matter what the Minister does with this committee, even if he does not agree with the amendment, which I support, people will not pay the water charges and the Minister is flogging a dead horse. Continue on if he will, but people cannot rely on the Dáil to actually carry out the mandate it was given in the election by a majority of the people. Fianna Fáil's election manifesto, on page 38, says that it would abolish water charges. This committee and these machinations look like an attempt to row back on that and this is why we are challenging it. We would not even be having this discussion or debate if we had not challenged it. People can see though what the Government is doing.

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