Last weekend the Taoiseach said that the Government and Irish Water would provide greater clarity on charges for the public after the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. On Monday, there was an apology from the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, and Mr. Tierney of Irish Water accepted that mistakes had been made. On Tuesday, the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, got stuck in and took the entire press pack to a sewage treatment plant in Ringsend, a fitting backdrop for where the Government has landed itself on this issue. He agreed that the legislation establishing Irish Water was rushed and that it was wrong not to debate it in the House. He pointedly reminded us that he was not a member of the Cabinet when the decision was taken. The Tánaiste clearly was a member, as was the Taoiseach.

Also on Tuesday, we were given confirmation by the Tánaiste that a family of two adults and two adult children could expect to pay water charges of no more than €200 per year. At last it appeared that a breakthrough was emerging regarding what citizens would pay for water. However, that was thrown on its head yesterday when the Taoiseach told the House, while the Tánaiste was holding a press conference elsewhere, that when the Tánaiste was speaking in the House in her capacity as Minister for Social Protection she was in fact expressing a personal opinion. It is amazing that the Taoiseach would say that the Tánaiste, when answering questions in the House as Minister, can somehow take off the cloak of Tánaiste and the heaviness of the office of Minister for Social Protection and speak in a personal capacity. What is really mind-boggling, however, is that the Government, in developing the concept of Irish Water, which was promised by Fine Gael in 2009 and accepted by this Government in 2011, has effectively ignored the concerns raised in this House and the concerns of the citizens of Ireland and has rammed it down people's throats. Since September, the Government has been asking people to fill out forms and provide their PPS numbers, which the Tánaiste sneakily slotted in as an amendment in the Social Welfare and Pensions Act, but as we approach the middle of November nobody can confirm what people will pay for water, notwithstanding that charging commenced on 1 October.

Will the Deputy put his question?

Now we have the farcical situation in which the Economic Management Council is meeting in secret to discuss the situation while ignoring this House and the mandate given to Members on this side and to the Government backbenchers. Indeed, Deputies Griffin and Stagg have been reminding the Government about the difficulties in that regard.

Does the Tánaiste consider it acceptable that the public will have to wait another two weeks before clarity is brought to the charging structure for a service that began on 1 October? Does the Tánaiste still believe, or is it now her professional view, that €200 will be the charge for a family of two adults and two adult children?

The Deputy is way over time.

More importantly, will she pause this runaway train and allow a proper debate in this House to ensure that Members, who have a mandate and a contribution to make, can assist in resolving this mess once and for all?

I am happy to tell the House that very good and solid progress has been made with Irish Water. The objective of the Labour Party, Fine Gael and the Government is to have an Irish Water charging regime that is affordable, that offers clarity and certainty, and that is capped so that if people, on the evidence of the meters, are using less water than the standard charges would indicate, they will be in a position to get a rebate.

I was delighted to appoint Deputy Alan Kelly as Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, and he has embarked on addressing the issues relating to Irish Water with his usual energy and gusto. As a fellow Tipperary man, I am sure Deputy Mattie McGrath is only delighted, and we expect him to reflect that.

I am delighted to see him swimming in the water.

John Tierney is from Tipperary too.

Tipperary people are usually proud of each other, particularly when they are on the national stage. I assume that is what I was hearing from that quarter.

The objective here is that Ireland will have clean, safe and healthy drinking water for ourselves and future generations. That is important. This country gets a large amount of rain and there is no shortage of water, thankfully. However, treating water for human and public consumption is a costly business. There is a cost in getting it to a person's house and in taking the wastewater away. That is what we are discussing.

I am delighted that solid progress is being made. Did the former Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, hold Fianna Fáil Government meetings and Cabinet sub-committee meetings in public? I must have missed those. It is certainly a development when the Fianna Fáil spokesperson, and he can correct me if I misunderstood, is complaining about Cabinet sub-committees, including the Economic Management Council, meeting in private. That is the practice, and it has been for a long time.

There were a few leaks from the Cabinet over the years, particularly when the Tánaiste was not the Tánaiste.

All I can say is that I am happy that very solid progress is being made. I am very anxious to have affordable charges that will provide us with clean, reliable and healthy drinking water. In addition, we have an ambitious programme for the next ten years to invest approximately €10 billion in Irish Water. The Deputy mentioned that the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, went to Ringsend a few days ago. When that project was under the control of the local authorities, its estimated cost was a ballpark figure of €350 million. Since Irish Water took over, the estimated cost has been revised downward-----

It is a different project.

-----to between €170 million and €180 million.

The Tánaiste must conclude.

If that is what one Tipperary man can do in four months in office as Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government-----

What would two of them do?

It is a good performance from the Tipp stars.

I never thought I would hear the Tánaiste say she would take something from the Charles Haughey school of politics to assist her in performing her duties. I am sure he must be turning in his grave at the thought of it.

Tell us when Fianna Fáil met in public.

The Tánaiste indicated her confidence in the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, and the gusto with which he has approached his job. That is interesting. It is a kick in the shin for the Taoiseach for his comments yesterday.

It was more than a thinly veiled criticism of the European Commissioner, Mr. Phil Hogan, and one on which I ask the Tánaiste to ponder because the former Minister, Mr. Hogan, deserves the support of everyone in the House.

No one has a problem with the notion that there are costs associated with treating water and sewage - that is a given. My concern is that the economic management council is using a patchwork approach to a problem that has spiralled out of control.

The Deputy's time has concluded.

Will the Tánaiste provide time to give an opportunity to backbench Deputies from both Government parties and on this side to have the debate on this legislation that was denied them in December when the Bill on water charges was rammed through the House and down the throats of Irish people. It is not too late to pause the charging structure for a number of months, allow a comprehensive debate and produce a plan that will meet citizens' needs and take account of their ability to pay. If the Tánaiste believes that four Ministers closeted in a room-----

The Deputy has made his point.

-----can take cover in the approach taken by Charlie Haughey 30 years ago, she fails to realise where Irish people are and what they expect from us. This is certainly not the type of transparency the Labour Party suggested it would bring to citizens when it signed the programme for Government in 2011.

The Fianna Fáil Party signed up to water charges in 2007.

On the transparency front, what Irish people want is clean, clear and healthy water.

We need clean, clear government.

When Deputy Dooley's party left government its legacy was that people in County Roscommon had been unable to drink their water for almost 12 years. After Christmas and in the new year, the people of Roscommon will be able to drink their water. I would have expected the Deputy to take a positive view of that.

We have an ambitious programme of investment in Irish Water amounting to more than €10 billion over the next ten years. If the Fianna Fáil Party is suggesting that all of this finance should come directly via taxpayers, particularly through income tax, I suggest their approach would result in us failing to use a resource, namely, off-balance sheet funding mechanisms-----

Who is being asked to pay water charges? Is there some type of magic casino involved?

-----which, in the history of that party in government, were used by the ESB and Bord Gáis, as publicly owned utilities, to bring forward desperately needed investment in the country's infrastructure. We are using the same model.

Consumers paid for that investment in their bills. The Tánaiste should stop digging.

This approach makes business and economic sense and in terms of the recovery in which all of us are interested, it allows us to provide key investment in a resource that is incredibly important in the daily lives of everyone in this country, not to speak of its importance for agriculture, tourism, the pharmaceutical industry, international investment and local businesses.

What caused the Tánaiste to change her view on this issue in the past four years?