Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

Trying to reinvent history and give a nuanced presentation of politics is a difficult feat, particularly with regard to water charges or anything to do with local government. I heard my Government colleague, Senator John Whelan, speak about the 1977 Fianna Fáil manifesto. Some 34 years on local authorities are still trying to deal with the crisis caused by Fianna Fáil's first bankrupting of the economy in 1977 and 1978.

When I entered politics in the local elections of 1985, there was only one topic on the doorsteps - service charges. The Coalition Government had introduced service charges, with the intention that domestic consumers would pay for water and refuse services. The proposal was viciously opposed by Fianna Fáil and the electoral result of Fianna Fáil's commitment to abandon service charges was virtually every local authority was dominated by Fianna Fáil in 1985. Six months after the election the Fianna Fáil Party, in its local authority Estimates meetings, had an opportunity to put into practice what it had promised six months previously, to abolish service charges. It did not, of course, do so.