Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I want to make the point that 30 amendments to the Water Services Bill have been ruled out of order. It seems that a crude approach has been taken in ruling out amendments to this Bill. For example, my group submitted an amendment which would say that rather than the Dáil having the power to reduce the threshold for the so-called excessive use charge in five years, as proposed in the legislation, and is in our view an attempt to introduce water charges through the back door, that the Dáil would not be allowed to do that for 999 years. That has been ruled out of order. Will the Leas-Cheann Comhairle or the Minister explain to me and to the House why that amendment, and so many others which have been put down by the left and Sinn Féin - I notice that Fianna Fáil has not tabled a single amendment to this Bill, which is very instructive - have been ruled out of order in such a crude fashion in order to defend this Bill?

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