Jimmy Harte (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Minister of State wholeheartedly. I must go back to my friends in Northern Ireland and tell them how great a country they live in because I did not realise until I listened to Senator Cullinane's contribution how perfect a system they have compared to us. I did not know people in the North paid so little tax for so great a service. Sinn Féin's history in the context of the water board there is bleak. A total of 23,000 water meters were installed costing £1.5 million and then the party said they would not be used. God forbid that Sinn Féin would be in charge of water services here because of the way the party treated them in their own jurisdiction where one of its Ministers was proven to be using the board as a club for the boys in appointing someone. An employment tribunal found him guilty of religious discrimination. A Minister in the Oireachtas would be asked to resign immediately if that was proven but the Northern Ireland Minister dismissed it and said the tribunal was not credible.