Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The point I am making is that before we can review a scheme we have to have projections. I am asking the Minister very clear questions. What are the projections? How many households do they intend to pay the grant to? How much of a hole will that leave in the social protection budget, and has that been signed off on by Cabinet and by the Minister for Social Protection?

In terms of the principle of this, it is like borrowing money from a loan shark. It seems like a good idea at the time but in the longer run we will end up paying much more and being a lot more indebted. This is the carrot being used again. It is just another Irish Water scam by this Government and it no longer has any credibility in my view. The Minister should give us detail on this because we got very little detail on most of the questions we have asked so far in this debate, and it appears there has been very little thought put into most of the measures in the Bill. It strikes me that Irish Water 1, 2 and 3 are episodes of another debacle.