David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I second the Fianna Fáil amendment to the Order of Business. I agree that the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht should come before the House today but in reality the Taoiseach should come before the House. Last week the Taoiseach stated that he took personal responsibility for what has become a fiasco in regard to the Seanad by-election. If the Taoiseach was taking personal responsibility, what was he taking personal responsibility for? When one takes responsibility for something, it means one did something wrong. The Taoiseach should come into this House to explain to us what he did wrong. We all know what he did wrong but he should account for himself in this House.

We also, shamefully, had a situation where the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Paudie Coffey, hired a former Fine Gael councillor and director of Irish Water as his personal driver on a salary of €665 per week. The same individual received a gratuity payment of €57,757 when he lost his council seat and received an annual fee of €15,000 for his position on Irish Water. There is a clear conflict of interest where a director of Irish Water is employed by the Minister of State with responsibility for that body to be his driver.

What was most disturbing was the response of the former councillor to questions from the media. When he was asked if there was a salary attached he said: “I don’t think there is anyone working for free at the moment.” Many people on Gateway schemes throughout the State would disagree with him. He also said:

You tell me one party out there who doesn’t look after their own. I don’t see anything wrong with it.

Would the Leader stand over those remarks? Does he see anything wrong with it? The most disgusting thing he said, which I invite the Leader to condemn, was: "We were all nearly eating out of bins three years ago." Very few Fine Gael supporters were eating out of bins three, ten or 30 years ago. There are many people, however, who, while they may not be eating out of bins, are in poverty and cannot afford to pay their bills. On this day of all days for us to discuss the issue, the Leader and his party want to impose water charges and some families will have to pay up to €500 once metering begins. I ask the Leader to comment on all these issues and I will support the amendment to the Order of Business proposed by Fianna Fáil.