David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Leader will know, Right2Water is organising a national rally today outside Leinster House. Preparations are being made for it, as any of us who came into the building from either entrance this morning have seen. A big crowd is expected. People are travelling from every village, community, town and city in the State. In the Leader's own city and county of Waterford, buses are travelling from Dungarvan, Portlaw, Tramore, Waterford city and Ferrybank. The same is the case in Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Galway and all the counties across the State. There will be a big mobilisation.

They are not protesting because of any of the so-called concessions that were made by the Government a few weeks ago, they are protesting because they do not like to pay for water a second time. They believe, as I do and as the campaign does, that water is a human right, which should not be delivered on the basis of how much money somebody has in their pocket. It should be provided through progressive taxation, as all basic human rights should. I ask the Leader to listen to what the protesters today have to say, especially those travelling up from Waterford, and to act appropriately, because what people want is the abolition of water charges. That is the clear demand being made by the people who, again, will come out on the streets in significant numbers today. I look forward to hearing from all the speakers, including those from Detroit and other places outside Ireland. We will have a number of international speakers, who will talk about their experience of what happened when water changed from a precious human right to a commodity and when the provision of such a basic service was commercialised. The Leader must act this time. The Government must genuinely listen and scrap the water charges, not cap them.