David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Senator Ó Clochartaigh and I contributed earlier and raised a number of genuine concerns about water charges, expressing our opposition and detailing why we opposed them. We indicated how they were unfair and I spoke about progressive taxation versus indirect taxes. There were a number of specific questions and we raised genuine concerns but none of these was addressed in the response. All we got was an attack on Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin. That is exactly what happened in the last Water Services Bill and we have got the same right through Second and Committee Stage of this legislation all day. The Government will not stand over its policies.

The Minister of State will not answer any real questions that are being asked. He bats them all away and then just comes back with this nonsense about the policies of Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil. It gets boring. People out there are not interested. Come the next election, they will decide on the policies of those parties but what they are concerned now is the Bill before us, what it is in it and how it will affect them. All of the questions we have asked and the issues and concerns we have raised have not been answered.

When we stood here last year, we raised concerns about the wasteful spending in Irish Water. A total of €80 million-----