Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin opposes this legislation. In terms of the water charges, we have witnessed on the streets how people's power has this Government and Fianna Fáil in its tracks. We fought this for many years in the local authorities where it was clear there was a push towards privatisation. The Minister is trying to introduce charges through the back door. We are opposed to that and will be watching this space. In five years' time or whenever the Government seeks to try to change the charging system, the people will be ready and we will be there.

As far as I can remember, this is the first time that the people, who in their tens of thousands took to the streets, have forced a government to do a U-turn. The Minister may never admit it and his colleagues in Fianna Fáil may never admit it, but that is the reality. There will be other campaigns. There will be a major campaign on bin charges and we will all be out on the streets at some stage in the future. The drive towards privatisation in this country has been an absolute disaster. We have seen it in housing where the privatisation agenda and a pandering to those with money and the private sector has been going on for many years. We need to stop this agenda. The people are calling for action to stop all these drives towards privatisation.

See this speech in context