Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am very disappointed that no representatives of this House have been appointed to the Committee on the Future of Healthcare. I know that many Senators in the House have direct experience that would have added greatly to the development of that strategy.

I ask the Leader whether any contact has been made about appointments to the committee deliberating on the findings of the commission on water charges. There has been some discussion about appointing four Senators to the committee. I find it very contradictory in many ways. If we had gotten representatives onto the Committee on the Future of Healthcare, they could have been really productive. Meanwhile, we are now being asked for four Senators to be appointed to what I would call a pre-determined outcome.

The majority of Deputies that will make up that committee have already indicated what the outcome will be. The Leader's colleague in government, Deputy Micheál Martin, has already stated that there will be no water charges. Sinn Féin has been pretty consistent in what it has been saying about water charges, in fairness. Therefore, why are we going through this charade of a pre-determined committee that will sit until next March when we already know the outcome, since Micheál Martin said in Friday's Irish Independentthat there will be no charges? Deputy Barry Cowen has a different opinion and has softened the edges of that stance. Deputy John Lahart referred to it as well on "The Week in Politics". However, the leader of Fianna Fáil was pretty clear in his interview on Friday that there will be no charges. Are we participating in a simple charade to get us through to March? We now know that the majority of people participating in that committee are saying that the outcome will bring an end to water charges. Why are we playing along with that?