Tony Mulcahy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Mooney gave us a history lesson but I will put a history lesson on the record. Fianna Fáil won a landslide victory in the general election in 1977. Martin O'Donoghue was the Minister for Finance at the time when the Government abolished rates. I do not know if the Minister of State is old enough to remember that. The Minister who succeeded him, Jack Lynch, who had a proud history, recorded the largest deficit ever seen in this country at 17.8%. When we did that, we wiped out our source of income to run our services. This is over 40 years ago.

I do not mind taking hits and shots. In response to Senator Craughwell, I have never voted like a sheep. I have always voted with the knowledge that we need to pay for what we get and that if we do not contribute, we are not going to get it. The Sinn Féin team in here then tells us about all the wonderful stuff we can have for free but they have little Greece up in Northern Ireland where they get £14.5 billion every year to run their services. What Sinn Féin does not tell the House is that the average townhouse in Northern Ireland pays £1,000 per year in household charges. At the end of the day, someone has to pay and someone has to contribute a little. This is all that is being asked for across the economy. I have always paid for water both in business and in my home. I will always continue to pay for the services but I do not see why others should not pay.

I think there is a lot more to this Bill than Irish Water. Senator Landy raised the issue of Enva in my town and our faith in the EPA. I have no faith in the EPA and I have said so on the record here previously given the kind of carry-on it engages in. The Senator said that the EPA took cases against 11 local authorities but it never took cases against some of the companies it should have taken cases against.

When we talk about history, we can pick out all the nice parts but there are bad bits as well. The bad bits are the bits that made us the way we are today. That is a fact. The destruction of this economy began in 1977 and, unfortunately, it continued until it eventually fell over. Now that we are in recovery, we will work with Fianna Fáil and anybody else to try and put it back on its feet but when we talk, we must be honest. My colleagues and I got walloped here a while ago by the Sinn Féin Senators for making comments. You can come in here and not be truthful and describe what it is like on all parts of this island where people 100 miles from here pay the majority of these charges. It does not matter who is here next year. People will still have pay here because somebody has to pay for these services. If not, we are suggesting that the ordinary householder or those on lower incomes should not have to pay and that it should be transferred to the taxpayer. We will then have the two million people in work in Ireland paying to carry the rest. I am not prepared to accept that in any way, shape or form. I believe everyone should contribute a little and that this is the way we should go forward.