Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----I was writing his manifesto for him.

Water charges are a fact of life everywhere. They help reduce costs. They reduce the level of capital infrastructure, because less water is used, and ensure money is available to pay for the cost of the infrastructure. We cannot be left in the situation we were in when the troika came into the country and we had no money to pay for anything. The country was bust. We were in hock.