Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It was interesting to listen to what the previous speaker said on this issue. He started off his contribution by saying he wants to be able to deal with more pressing issues. I do not see a more pressing issue than dealing once and for all with the legacy of the debacle that is Irish Water. There have been a number of attempts to introduce water charges over the years. It is a pressing issue. The whole flip-flop of those in Fianna Fáil on this issue has been enlightening to many people in our society. We have said this for many years - it is not a case of pragmatism, it is a case of them being chancers. This issue, more than many other issues, has exposed that.

The biggest crying shame in all this is the hundreds of millions of euro that have been wasted in recent years which could have been spent on more productive areas, such as addressing housing needs and the crisis in health care, yet the previous Government and the one prior to that decided to proceed with a charging regime for water. It is not over. This Bill will be opposed. Any attempt in the future to introduce a more restrictive or a more penal charging regime will be resisted. The appetite for such resistance exists now. Both the previous Government and Fianna Fáil can be thanked for helping to radicalise quite a sizable proportion of Irish society and unifying it against the Government. If nothing else, with this issue people have seen that they can win and that they can stand up to a Government and its decisions.

The previous speaker suggested that those of us who were aligned to the Right2Change or who campaigned for the ending of water charges sat on our hands or went on holidays for ten weeks after the result of the election. We did no such thing. I can guarantee the Deputy that if he were to go into the communities we represent they would be happy that we represented what we stood for in that election. The lie that my party did nothing, which has been continuously peddled in recent months, needs to be challenged when, in fact, we did act in that period. However, when one has a door slammed in one's face continuously, one does not usually go through that door or knock again and ask, "Please, sir, let me in." Fianna Fáil has suggested we did not engage in government forming. Before and after the election, Fianna Fáil, the previous Taoiseach and the current one continuously said - and it is said again now - that Sinn Féin will not form part of any Government. That is happy days from my point of view. I do not want to be in government with Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael but they cannot then at the same time say we were remiss in our duties because we did not involve ourselves in government forming. If someone slams the door in one's face, one takes that as a given. People need to look at their own history.

As this Bill reflects a mere victory on this issue, I take this opportunity to congratulate the tens of hundreds of thousands of people throughout this country who mobilised on, got involved in and researched this issue because they were not led like sheep. They formed their own opinions and took to the streets to campaign against the imposition of water charges. I congratulate, in particular, those who got involved in the Right2Change movement that came about from the Right2Water campaigning. That shows what can be done if there is unity among those of us who are progressive in this society. It is a pity that the legislation which should be before the House ending fully any charges for water is not before it and that the current Bill does not contain a provision for a referendum that we all believe should held to ensure that a future Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael Government could never ever privatise the water that we enjoy in our society.

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