Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This month marks the third anniversary of the biggest mobilisation this country has ever seen. Over 150,000 people mobilised three years ago against water charges. I was one of those people. At that time the former Taoiseach, Deputy Kenny, said that this was about more than just water charges. He was right. The people of this country had had enough. They had reached breaking point. During the march, I knew something had changed dramatically in the psyche of working people. They had had enough of austerity. Water charges was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Defeat is contagious. If one is constantly defeated, one gets very down. However, in this case the contagion turned into resistance and a confidence in working people. Since then, there have been nine further anti-water charges marches, which have been fantastic. They brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets. This gave people confidence and a sense that they would not be constantly defeated. It was great to be involved. From my point of view it politicised, radicalised and mobilised people such that they were confident they could defeat the water charges, which was extremely important. In a parallel universe, had the Government side won and water charges had been introduced, this would have led to a sene of defeat among my generation and the next generation. It is hard to rid oneself of a sense of defeat. When one is constantly defeated one is crippled by the feeling that one cannot do anything or resist anything.

Overall, we have defeated water charges. I have no doubt about that. This Bill, more than anything else, is a face-saving exercise. What defeated the water charges was people power. People mobilised on the streets, in their communities and in their workplaces through many forms of resistance, including marching, blocking entrances to estates - in which I was involved along with other residents in Clondalkin - so that Irish Water could not install meters. This action and the boycott of water charges were key in defeating water charges. Fianna Fáil often makes the point that it was the catalyst in the defeat of the water charges, which is laughable, because it was people power that did so.

It is great that water charges have been defeated. However, this Bill leaves the door open for future water charges. There is no doubt about that.

The Bill is deliberately vague on excessive use and could be open to change in the future. Over the past 35 years we have always been open to the idea that water charges would be introduced in some manner. The key thing is that they will be defeated. They have been defeated now and they will be defeated in the future, which is good.

During the water charges debate over the past four or five years, certain things stick out in people's heads. One of the major things was people power. Sticking out in my head - they probably come back to haunt Fine Gael - are the words of Phil Hogan when in May 2014 he very arrogantly said that people's water would be turned down to a trickle but it has not been. The great thing is that the Bill before us has turned the Government's water charges to a trickle. People power has defeated the water charges. In my eyes resistance is never futile.

See this speech in context