Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If we are to be responsible in the Houses of the Oireachtas, we have to deal with the truth and the facts. That does not always happen in all our parties. That is not acceptable in my view. I will always try to put the facts out there. Even last week, I do not think people liked me putting out the facts on the Seanad reform Bill. It was the truth and I was stating the facts. If we are to progress the debate, we can only deal with facts and truths. I do not do flowery. I just do facts and figures. I hope people realise that. That is what we need to do for the good of the country. We need to do the right thing.

My colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, has clearly stated that he is open to looking at the question of further reassurance on this issue if required. He said that on the record.

There has been some discussion of late regarding Ireland's obligation under the framework directive. I wish to make a few points on that. A key component of the directive, as Senator Coffey mentioned, is the polluter pays principle and the cost recovery of water services. Article 9(4) provided a derogation that could be used where charging was not an established practice and the objectives of the directive could still be met. Ireland did not use this derogation in its first river basin management plans in 2012. Senator Kevin Humphreys made the same point. Those plans stated that domestic charging would be introduced as a means of complying with the directive. That is three Governments ago, to be clear about this issue.