John Whelan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

We had water charges previously but they were called rates. It is rich for people today to speak of the playing politics, because rates were abolished with one stroke of a pen to steal an election in 1977, the previous occasion on which Fianna Fáil bankrupted the country. As a result of that measure, county councils did not have a penny for water and sewerage systems, so lead pipes brought water to schools. Pipes are rusting and leaking, we have not built a reservoir in 50 years, and Dublin is on the verge of running out of water. We built 700,000 houses in ten years but we did not provide matching water and sewerage infrastructure. We are playing catch-up, and it is not true to say we are paying for water twice because, to be honest, we are not even paying for it once.