Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Ceann Comhairle is okay.

I was a member of that committee and I sat through the sessions. It was clear that rather than deal with the very substantive issues many of us put on the table, like water conservation, education and changes to planning and building control, the Government simply wanted a mechanism to reintroduce domestic metered water charges. It came up with a proposition of so-called excessive use. Thankfully, that was not introduced immediately afterwards but we saw last year Uisce Éireann publish the water services plan, which included the proposed charge for so-called excessive use. As the Minister knows, at the centre of the media controversy was that his first day brief from the officials included that.

The purpose of the Bill is very straightforward. If the Government wants us and the wider public to believe it that it has no intention to introduce this charge, then vote for this Bill. Why? It is because this Bill removes Part 2 from the 2017 Water Services Act which empowers Uisce Éireann to introduce that charge. If it is really the Government's position that it has no plans at this or any other time to introduce such a charge, we ask it to support this Bill and to put the matter to bed once and for all. If it does not, it will confirm among a large section of the public that, in fact, it does not mean what it says and that it will continue to try to introduce this unjust charge by the back door. If that is the case, not just our party but other parties which will speak here this evening, will make very clear through our actions both in this House and on the street that we will continue to campaign against such unjust charges until the prospect of them is buried once and for all.

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