Seeing as this is April fools' day, perhaps the Taoiseach saying he did not fix the banks for the benefit of the banks but for the benefit of their customers was his attempt to get into the spirit of this day.

I asked the Taoiseach to contrast his attitude to struggling householders with his attitude to the banks. The Taoiseach did not do that. The banks have refused to pass on to mortgage holders the benefits of lower interest rates set by the European Central Bank. That is happening; I am not making it up. The Economic Management Council has not met the banks in three years. The Government has given the banks a veto. We tried to table an amendment to that but the Government guillotined the legislation when it was coming through the Chamber.

Let us consider the fact that the Taoiseach behaves as if he were a commentator or a spectator.

A question, please.

The people own the banks. The Taoiseach has not reformed the banks for the benefit of their customers. The Taoiseach spoofs all the time about the great sacrifices being borne by the citizens. It is the Taoiseach who has imposed these sacrifices on them. Today - I am making the point again - on the one hand the Government sends bills out to take water charges out of people's pockets while at the same time the banks are refusing to pass on benefits to them. Again, I call on the Taoiseach to contrast or compare his attitude to the elites with his attitude to struggling households. Is the Taoiseach's approach fair?

I put it to Deputy Adams that AIB has reduced variable interest rates. I am unhappy that the level of interest rate reduction is not being passed on to consumers. Let me repeat the point.

What is the Taoiseach going to do about it?

Sorry, will you stay quiet and listen to the answer?

When this Government first came into office, the sector was a complete and unholy mess. It has been restructured and recapitalised. Those banks are now returning to profitability.

They are keeping those profits.

AIB has reduced variable interest rates. The bank has not gone far enough. I want to see the engagement that the Department of Finance has every week with the Central Bank continue. The Government, as I said in the House yesterday, will meet the banks about an agenda of issues, including the bringing forward of a number of other actions in regard to mortgage distress. The priority for Government is that people do not have to lose their houses. Fully 100,000 have been settled satisfactorily and are paying their way. There are others in particular circumstances that need to be dealt with.

To whose satisfaction?

Deputy Adams seems to be happy with a situation whereby our country, his country and my country, can continue with people having to boil water, with houses connected with lead pipes and where there is inferior quality water coming through.

The Government is sending them the bill for it.

Deputy Adams has said in the House that he is a legislator and he will pay his water charges. It was the same with the person beside him, his deputy leader. The cost is €1.15 per week or €3.

That may not be too much for the Taoiseach but it is for others.

Does Deputy Adams not believe it is fair that we should be able to raise sufficient money to invest in and fix these inferior systems? Perhaps that is how Deputy Adams wants to condemn people to have that inadequate standard for the next 15 years. I do not and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government does not.

Answer the question.

It is time now to get on with dealing with this. The Government, having listened very carefully to people-----

It is ignoring the people.

-----set a charge of €1.15 per week or €3. The man who stopped me with the two pints in his hand last week-----

Two pints in one hand?

-----shouting about the cost of water that he could not pay-----

I will have to stop you now, and I have no pint in my hand.

What he was holding in his hands would pay for water for him - because I know him - for nearly ten weeks.

Spongers and alcoholics. That is how he sees the people who will not pay. How interesting.