Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I am certainly none the wiser. It has been seven years since we introduced the Bill which was supported by Fianna Fáil. We were told it would be early in the new year and now we are being told it will be in the near future. As the Minister of State said, the housing commission is ready to bring out its report. I would have thought the Minister would have been working on the wording and date for the referendum on the public ownership of water at same time so that as soon as the report from the housing commission is produced, he could move forward quite quickly on this.

The water services workers have made this a key demand before they make any move over to Irish Water. They want the wording and the date. They want their pay, rostered and regular overtime and allowances red-circled before anything happens. They have made that decision. Unite has rejected the WRC plan and SIPTU has stalled any co-operation with Irish Water regarding the terms of their pay and conditions. I hope the Minister of State can at least say it is imminent. What he has said indicates it is not. All we can do is go out in public with the other right-to-water parties in the Dáil and the unions and make it a big issue again.

The can has been kicked down the road since 2016. We were on Third Stage in 2018 with the Bill we introduced and we are still there after a mass movement on water charges which we all remember clearly. It is the people's will. It is the water services workers' will and it is the will of the Opposition parties who supported the Bill.

See this speech in context