Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I did not interrupt Senator Coffey. All of the negative consequences that come with that remain in place and a future Government - which may even be, after the next election, a fine coalition of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael - can come back and do exactly what it wants, which is to extend that charge out to ever-increasing numbers of people, commodify a valuable service that is water and revert to the bad model of water services delivery that is becoming the norm across the world.

The consequences of this are that there will be water poverty, increased charges and poorer quality services, particularly for those in need. For those reasons, not only will Sinn Féin be absolutely opposing this legislation but we will be doing as much as we can to ensure that those problems with this Bill are fully exposed in committee in order that when they start to hit people in the streets, they will know to blame Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.