Yesterday, tens of thousands of people protested outside the gates of the Dáil against the Government’s water charges. The protest was peaceful and it was a vibrant demonstration of people power.

It was not peaceful.

It was. Deputy Kehoe should withdraw his remark.

Those tens of thousands-----

It was peaceful and democratic.

Those tens of thousands of people represent just the front line of a much wider risen people-----

The risen people of Sinn Féin.

-----who yesterday joined together and sang in one chorus that they have had enough.

Enough cuts, enough poverty, enough of feeling hopeless and helpless, enough of the Minister and of his Government. They have told them that these charges are a step too far. The Minister can try, if he wishes, to dismiss or downplay or distort the significance of yesterday's Right2Water rally but that kite will not fly for him.

A Sinn Féin rally.

Did the Minister hear the voices of these people? Did he hear when they told him that partial U-turns and revised packages containing bribes and sour-sweeteners and kicking down the road the certainty of metered water charges does not cut it? The message and the demand of the people is very clear and simple, is to abolish water charges or if not, call a general election. That is the choice the Minister has to make. There is now no other show in town for Fine Gael or Labour. Will the Government finally do the right thing and scrap these odious water charges?

Thirty thousand against 1 million.

I agree that there was a very powerful manifestation, and peaceful manifestation by and large, on the streets of Dublin yesterday. That was a manifestation of very many years of difficult economic decisions - both the Government and I understand it was not just water charges - that were required to give us hope for the future, to put our economy back on solid ground-----

You are sinking in it.

-----which we have now done. We can now begin to give people hope in planning for the future and creating jobs.

To answer the specific issue of water charges, this Government has been listening. The very clear view over many months was that people wanted certainty and simplicity-----

They want rid of Irish Water and the bonuses.

-----and they wanted to know it was affordable in the longer term. They wanted to know that the money was going to be used to invest in the country's decrepit public water and public sewage supply because the old system to which Fianna Fáil wants to return - to give it back to the local authorities - has plainly failed us.

We invested €500 million every year and the Government will invest €400 million every year. The Minister should tell the truth.

We need to invest in all the water treatment plants and all the sewage treatment plants that are required. We need to do away with the boil-water notices and give quality water to people.

This is fairy tale stuff.

It is not happening.

Since the Government's revised package was presented, more than 90,000 people have registered with Irish Water.

All those getting the €100 pay-back.

That puts things into some context. As of now, some 935,000 people are registered.

How many filled out the forms?

Most people understand that water and water infrastructure, a quality water supply and a clean water supply for families, individuals, companies and for communities, has to be provided, the same as waste water treatment plants, rather than spewing solid sewage waste into our streams and rivers. That all has to be paid for. If it is not paid for through a usage charge-----

So the pre-election manifesto was wrong.

-----it will be paid for through a further tax on workers. I know that the Deputy's party has already outlined €5 billion on additional taxes on work but I do not think that is the way to go.

Deputy O'Dowd is not a happy bunny.

I will take that reply as a long-winded "No". The Minister could just have said, "No". If he had just had said "No", at least we would have the clarification that he had heard my question and also that he had heard the voices of the people. They want the certainty and simplicity of the abolition of these charges. People want the certainty and simplicity of knowing that when they turn out in their tens of thousands in the middle of the week, on a working day, two weeks out from Christmas, in the freezing cold and give the Minister a certain and simple message, that he will certainly and simply hear it and that he will certainly and simply respond to it.

The Minister's answer is "No". He is hell-bent on these charges, hell-bent on them in the full knowledge of the widespread public dissent and in the secure knowledge that so many people cannot pay them, that this will be the straw that breaks the camel's back and sinks these families into real financial difficulty and, indeed, poverty. Búla bos for the Minister and for his Labour Party colleagues.

Order, please. Deputy McDonald has the floor.

The truth is the Minister will not abolish the charges so what we need is a general election. The Minister cannot waltz in here, as delusional as all of the members of the Government are, and pretend that the Government's mandate is still intact.

Ask Maíria Cahill about pretending.

That mandate is not intact; it is broken and it was broken by the Government's own broken promises.

If the Minister disagrees with me-----

Will the Deputy circulate her script?

The Deputy is concluding, as I have asked her.

Read on.

-----if his backbenchers disagree with me, if he believes that the Government still has a mandate and if he is certain of that, then call a general election and prove me wrong.

Sineád wants you to go. She will sing the song, "Goodbye Mary Lou".

Order, please, the Minister has the floor.

I know the Sinn Féin Party wants a general election because its members tabled a motion to that effect earlier. In terms of policy-making, it is not a general election so much as a by-election that determines Sinn Féin policy. Up to the most recent by-election, they were minded to pay water charges - as was the Deputy herself - and minded to support them.

I never supported them.

However, since they were out-manoeuvred in the by-election, they think now that policy should be determined-----

They should be learning the lesson.

Clearly, making fundamental policy by opinion poll in a time of economic crisis will not serve this country well. Decisions on policy are made by the sovereign Parliament elected by the people of this country. I ask the Deputy to have regard for that. This is an assembly of elected politicians, each of us who have put our names on a ballot paper and each of us have the same mandate.

It was based on a false promise in the Minister's case.

To hear Fianna Fáil talk about false promises, I remind Deputy Dooley that it banjaxed the country.

The Minister is following it up with some skill.

We have now restored it and the least Deputy Dooley could do, in modesty, is to allow me to answer questions for people who are asking serious questions.

In reply to Deputy McDonald, the Government has been listening to the voice of people. We understand the impositions of the past number of years but we also look at the consequence for countries - I refer in particular and very carefully and in a very worried fashion at what is happening in Greece now.

What about four years ago?

If four years ago we followed the path that Sinn Féin has mapped out for us we would be in ruin now. We would not be talking about-----

Do you not get it?

I know that a democratic assembly is difficult for some people to listen to; they like to shout people down from the back of a truck.

The arrogance is mind-boggling.

The Minister to conclude.

If Sinn Féin and the Socialist Workers' Party, the Anti-Austerity Alliance, People Before Profit and whatever-you-are-having-today party had their way we would now not be paying 16 cent a day for a water charge or 43 cent a day for a family of more than two adults. We would be in ruin without being able to pay for any basic services.

I would say Joan is on her way back from Belfast already.

I call Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan of the Technical Group. Order, please, for the speaker.