Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of Irish Water and believe that the current committee is making good progress. According to reports in the media this morning, there is now great hope that the committee will have a consensus on finally doing away with water charges and everyone in the Chamber should welcome that. I commend my own party, especially my colleague Deputy Eoin Ó Broin, on leading the fight on that in the Oireachtas and I commend the trade union movement and the Right2Water campaign, who have been absolutely solid. I also commend the hundreds of thousands who marched over the past number of years because it was people power that determined the end of water charges.

I remind people why we are opposed to water charges. It is because they represent regressive taxation. I was surprised that the Labour Party, in particular, never understood that it was regressive, toll booth taxation.