Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabh mo leithscéal, Minister, it is my time. I did not interrupt the Minister in fairness, even though he was talking utter shite. Gabh mo leithscéal. I should not have said that.

People do not trust Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on this issue. They have good reason for that. The Minister spoke about Sinn Féin losing votes in the election. The Minister’s party, Fianna Fáil, and Fine Gael had the lowest vote they ever got in the history of the State. He should not be lecturing us on election results.

The reason this Bill is necessary is that when it comes to the issue of water charges, no one trusts the two parties in Government. One of the first campaigns in which I was involved was the campaign against water charges in the 1980s in Limerick. A decade ago, I was again involved in the water charges campaign, a grassroots, people-led campaign that defeated water charges. If necessary, it will do so again.

The Bill we are discussing, which the Minister refuses to support, would repeal the aspect of the 2017 Act that allows for Uisce Éireann to introduce a customer charge for water use. That is exactly what we are saying the Government refuses to support. That is why we do not have confidence in the Minister when he says that is not what the Government wants to do. The Government does not have the trust of the people on this issue, which is the reason we are bringing forward this Bill. When we vote on it tomorrow night, people will see where the Government stood on the issue of water charges when it had the chance to do it.

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