Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I said yesterday, I will be paying the water tax. I do not regard it as excessive and would be prepared to pay more. However, as a citizen, a republican and a socialist, I feel guilty because by making it easy for me to pay it, I am depriving children of poor families of their food. That might seem dramatic, but if we do not accept it as the truth and the reality, we are out of touch with the people.

Some will make hay out of this issue, but there are so many genuine people whom we have heard on radio and seen on television. They are straightforward and honest people who are saying they have no money and cannot pay any more. The only reason we have what Senator Sean D. Barrett refers to as a poll tax is there was a debacle. There was a knee-jerk reaction and we knew that the metering programme would not be finished on time. We also knew that we had to win over the masses who were on the streets protesting. We came up with this solution, but in so doing all we did was to increase the divide between rich and poor. It is as simple as that.

I do not understand why we are allowing this to happen and not going down the road towards progressive taxation. I may be in a minority, but the PAYE system is sufficient to handle all of these hidden taxes. There is no logic to the argument that raising income tax undermines employment opportunities. One is still paying it, but the manner in which we have constructed this measure is the reason we have had this reaction.

In the early days of the recession I was wondering about the patience of the people. When I looked at Portugal, Greece and other countries and saw the public reaction, I thought about how disciplined we were as a people. We did not want to make matters worse or engage in violence as a result of what was happening. I am talking about the results of the austerity measures, but we eventually let loose the frustration and anger that had built up. We are now dealing with this legislation and the new approach and really witnessing the frustration people are feeling and exacerbating the situation. Any open-minded person would have to admit we have not got this one right. While I hope we do not, I know that we will see the results when we try to implement the legislation. We all agree that we must upgrade the water system, conserve water and control its usage to have a quality water supply. All of these things seem to be agreed to by both sides of the House. Even though we agree on this, we are not prepared to take on board the responsibility that we have to act in a courageous and radical way, if necessary, to supply the funding needed to upgrade the water system.

Any outsider looking at what we have been debating yesterday and today and not being aware of how it happened, if he or she saw it as a starting point, he or she would be seriously wondering about what type of parliament we had because it does not make any sense. Above all else, it does not make any social sense either. Why would we want to make people who do not have the money suffer any more than they already have? It is the straw that broke the camel's back. Very often they are the ones left without a voice here and, to some extent, the Dáil. They created a voice of their own on the streets, but as we all know, it is transient. It will get the headlines for one week and the issue will be discussed on current affairs programmes on radio and television, but nevertheless it is transient. We must try to hear that voice on the floor of this Chamber, but - I mean this sincerely - not in a confrontational way. No matter what Government was in place, it would also have an unenviable task. We cannot genuinely move forward with the charges and methodology for them without expecting some reaction.

Senator Sean D. Barrett has tabled a cogent and well thought out amendment. He has no partisan axe to grind. In every contribution he has made in the House he has not tried to take any Government out of the equation. I do not want to be alarmist, but if we move forward with this methodology, we will truly have lost our way in creating a new society by closing the gap between rich and poor. In making unpalatable decisions which may not necessarily win votes we must do so for the good of the country. Any stop-gap legislation which is not well thought out, measured or fair is unwarranted. It would be unfair to charge me so little, if I could afford to pay more. That applies to most people.