Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The subtext of the letter which was clearly a threat to his colleagues in Fianna Fáil was that he must get his way at the committee or he would force a general election. He said: "Give me my meters and give me my excess charge or we will go to the polls." What happened then was that, as he has just done here, Deputy Barry Cowen huffed and puffed and threatened to block the Minister's bid for Taoiseach. Deputy Barry Cowen did what has become his habit when the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney stands up to him - he backed down. Fine Gael got its meters, got its charge for so-called excessive use and even got a lower threshold based on household rather than individual average usage.

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