Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is the thing about Fianna Fáil members. When one says something they do not like, they are ready to jump in. They are not challenging facts, but those are the facts. They signed the memorandum of understanding. All three things are fact. That is what Fianna Fáil does. They got scared about Sinn Féin and rushed to be popular rather than to do the right thing by the country. The last time I saw legislation when we were running down this path, I was a mere councillor and Fianna Fáil bankrupted the country.

I am deeply disappointed about Fine Gael. I have the utmost respect for Senator Paudie Coffey and Deputy English, but I am reminded that it is not the Minister but the Minister of State who comes to the Seanad to take the kicking. I do not intend to give the Minister of State a kicking because we no longer have a Government. What we have are office holders. We are not getting real decisions and leadership. "Repeal the eighth" has been kicked to the citizens' assembly. Water charges have been sent to a water commission. Legislation on school admissions has been kicked to a Dáil committee for a year. The Cassells report on education has been kicked to another committee for a year. That is so it can all be kicked further and further down past the next election. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have just been elected and it is a coalition Government in that Fine Gael cannot bring legislation through the House without the support of Fianna Fáil. The idea that water charges, once suspended, will come back before the House before the next election is a joke. Nobody is talking about the 340,000 rural people who pay every day for their water. No one is marching on the streets about them and not one speaker here has referred to those people who have wells and those in group water schemes who have paid since the foundation of the State for their water. Nobody seems to care about them. Urban people get looked after because it means an extra seat for Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, but because the 340,000 rural people have paid for their water and their wells all along we can forget about them, aside from giving them an extra grant to keep them quiet. Sure they have always paid.

Since I was a child, Fine Gael has been considered a party of law and order. Can the Minister of State confirm whether legal advice has been taken from the Attorney General as to whether the Bill is legal? The former Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, sought legal advice from the Attorney General prior to exiting the Government. Has the Cabinet sought the Attorney General's advice? Commissioner Vella has been very clear about it. Once the Bill is passed, a letter will wing its way to the Minister asking him to explain. The pilot letter will arrive and our fines will start to grow. I hope the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and the shadow Minister, Deputy Barry Cowen, realise that they are building up a substantial debt for this country. We cannot manage to deal with water, the repeal of the eighth amendment, the schools admissions legislation or the funding of education. How on earth are we going to deal with legislation on climate change? Climate change is going to be costly. Are we going to kick that further down the road? Are we going to forget about the 2020, 2030 and 2050 targets, which so many Members have spoken about so passionately, because it will not be cheap to do so? It is going to cost money. Can we kick that down again and cause more fines? Shortly, we will be paying more fines than we will be paying interest on our loans. That is where we are heading.

Office holders are refusing to make decisions, which is inexcusable. One can see Fianna Fáil's hidden hand pulling the strings of the Government. All I can do is warn. The former Minister of State, Senator Paudie Coffey, knows well the pain this country had to go through to reverse its bankruptcy. He knows the 15% unemployment rate and the number of people who had to emigrate because Fianna Fáil would not take unpopular decisions, would not regulate and would not provide funding for regulators when tiny numbers were put into offices. Do not go down that road. We have to stop repeating history. Get away from Fianna Fáil. They will bankrupt us again. They bankrupted us in the past and they will do it again. Do not be their willing partner in running this country down. We have huge challenges but they are minor compared to modernising our water services. Dublin city is on a knife edge. Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael can knock on doors in four years' time and talk to the person who comes out and says that no water has come out of the tap for the last three weeks and that they are fed up of buying water at the supermarket. Why, when that person turns on the tap, will water not come out? It will be because we failed to invest in our water services. There is no clarity on the investment plan for Irish Water and how it is going to replace its income. Are we going to pull the money away from the HSE, education or our house building programme? Where on earth is the money going to come from to invest in water?

I have two direct questions for the Minister of State. Has the Cabinet taken the advice of the Attorney General on the Bill? What fines are expected after the legislation is passed and what consultation has taken place with the Commissioner with regard to rowing back on what was signed up to three times by Fianna Fáil in government?