David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I join with Senator Bacik in welcoming the imminent announcement for the former Waterford Crystal workers.

While, understandably, politicians will seek praise on this issue and a lot of work was done by politicians from both Government and Opposition, the real praise has to be given to the workers who took the court case. If those former workers had not taken the court case, I wonder whether they would have got the settlement and whether the Cabinet would have signed off on the plan and the announcement that will be made shortly. I do not think so. The workers themselves put a lot of effort into this but they should not have had to take the State to court in the first place. Much of the responsibility for that goes back to the previous Government, which I accept, but the fact they were forced through the courts by the State was regrettable. I want to put on the record of the House that a number of former workers have passed away since then and will not see justice, which is to be acknowledged.

I welcome the announcement. It will be fantastic for that money to be, hopefully, spent in the local economy in Waterford. This is symbolic for the workers and they should be praised for their efforts. I also want to praise the Unite trade union. Trade unions come in for a lot of flak but I believe the Unite trade union has shown the value of trade union membership and the value of what it is to be in a trade union. It supported the workers in taking this court case and those workers have finally, after a long battle, seen justice. That is to be commended.

We had a briefing today by the Detroit people who are here as part of the Right2Water campaign and who will be at the protest tomorrow. They gave their experience of what happened in Detroit when water became a commodity - not a public right, not a human right, but a commodity. Tens of thousands of people in Detroit at this time - as we speak here today - are without water. That is the reality of what happens when it is made a question of money and made a commodity, and there are lessons to be learned from that. The people from Detroit appealed to all Oireachtas Members and to the Government to turn back from the current policy and not to charge people twice for water but to provide it as a human right, paid for through progressive taxation, which is what we in Sinn Féin obviously want to see as well.

I have no doubt people are going to travel in big numbers tomorrow. Many people are going to travel from my own city and county of Waterford and they will be travelling from all over the State to again send this Government a message on water, namely, it should be kept in public ownership and it should be paid for through direct taxation, not through a stealth charge or water tax.