Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When it appeared in the news that a recent briefing document prepared for the Minister, when he was new to his role, listed the finalisation of the draft household water conservation charge regulations as a high-level priority, my reaction, along with the majority of the country, was that they could not be serious. How many times do Governments need to be told that "No" means no before it sinks in? Of course, there were swift denials from the Taoiseach and other actors but we have learned not to trust Fianna Fáil's word when it comes to Irish Water or Uisce Éireann or whatever name the State water entity wants to give itself in the future. The Fianna Fáil 2016 general election manifesto, An Ireland for All, stated that the party's core priorities included abolishing Irish Water and water charges. Just like the Fianna Fáil promise in the lead-up to last year's general election that 40,000 housing units would be delivered, that pledge was also misleading. The people of Ireland cannot take the word of Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael Governments when it comes to Uisce Éireann or water charges, be it by conservation charges, metering or however it can be labelled and dressed up. The Sinn Féin water services Bill is needed to ensure that manoeuvres by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, by hook or by crook, to introduce water charges on the general public do not succeed.

If half of the energy was put into making Uisce Éireann fully fit for purpose, with sufficient capital funding, as is put into plotting to shaft the Irish people with water charges, we would all be a lot better off. A mammoth amount of works needs to be done within Uisce Éireann. Parts of north Louth experience water outages and discolouration issues all too frequently. There are major supply issues around Clogherhead and Termonfeckin in south Louth. Above all, the communication between Uisce Éireann and the people it serves and their elected representatives is atrocious. Of the 29 councillors in Louth County Council, there is not one who has not had major frustrations in this regard. In my own experience, it took years at one stage to get an answer on capacity in Drogheda and south Louth. I would go as far as to say that there is not one councillor in Louth who has any confidence in this entity at all.

The final nail needs to be put into the coffin of water charges and that is what this Bill is for. The Minister's opposition, his deflection and his blasé response by calling this a waste of time is shameful. Mark my words: the Irish people will not accept any steps of any kind to move on water charges. Feet on the street and mass mobilisations in communities the length and breadth of the country stopped water charges before and if needs be, they will do so again. The Minister's labelling of the Bill as nonsense is disgusting and making faces says more about him and the contempt in which he holds the Irish people than it does about anything else.

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