Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are crocodile tears for small farmers and ordinary people. I remind the House that the only people now paying for water in their taps are the farmers, publicans and business people. They are the very people paying for water and so it is easy to have crocodile tears. If this is only for towns the size of Nenagh, why does a farmer extracting water with a 2,000-gallon tank to irrigate his potato crop - perhaps to save it - need to get permission from the council? It is a case of Big Brother watching. According to Deputy Ó Broin, not all legislation emanating from Europe is bad. I am not saying that everything is bad. However, we have fines from a European court and we are being hauled through the courts. I can already see here tonight the seeds of the next government being sown with Deputy Ó Broin moulding his way across the floor here and irrigating the roots with water, whether it be from Irish Water, from a mountain stream or any place else.

The seeds are being sown. All one needs to do now is to nurture them, give them a bit of 10-10-20 and perhaps a bit of other fertiliser which will certainly be environmentally friendly. We cannot use dung because that might give off an odour that might upset the Green Party. My learned friend above told me that he agreed with me for the first time ever.

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