The Taoiseach's Government, aided and abetted by the Fianna Fáil Party, is stumbling from crisis to crisis. There is a calamity in our health system and there is a homelessness and housing crisis that is spiralling further out of control by the day. Citizens are being crippled by a cost of living crisis in rents, mortgages, child care, property tax and car insurance. To make matters worse, there is the aftermath of the Brexit referendum and the challenges that presents across the island. I am sure the Taoiseach now realises that his handling of the proposal for an all-Ireland forum, a national forum, was clumsy and incompetent.

Just yesterday, the chairperson of the expert commission on water charges, Mr. Joe O'Toole, resigned. The Taoiseach's Government is a mess and the Fianna Fáil leadership is a willing partner in all of this. It has obliged him at every turn, or every U-turn, because the Fianna Fáil Party has done a U-turn on every issue, from saying it would not support Fine Gael in government to water charges, bin charges, NAMA, the national monument on Moore Street, rent certainty and, just last night, banded hours contracts. None of this is in the common good. None of it is in the national interest. It is motivated by the Fianna Fáil leadership's desire to keep Fine Gael in government until it decides to pull the plug at the point most advantageous to itself and its ambition to form a government. There is no other reason for the Fianna Fáil Party's behaviour. It is all about political power. It is not about new politics. It is nothing but the same old story.

The commission on water charges is clearly only a committee to provide the Government and the Fianna Fáil Party with a fig leaf on water charges as part of this partnership Government. Joe O'Toole put it well when he said: "People voted a certain way, Leinster House is not prepared to grasp that particular nettle, so we have to find a solution that will have enough sugar on it to make the medicine go down easily." However, Leinster House has not been allowed to deal with this issue. The public has rejected water charges.

It is Leinster House now, is it?

They should be scrapped and dealt with here in the Dáil, democratically and decisively. Here is the chance to get something done in this term. Let the people here, the Teachtaí Dála, vote on this issue, to scrap water charges, instead of kicking the issue down the road to an already undermined commission, or, in keeping with the fiction of new politics, does the Taoiseach have to ask an Teachta Martin for permission to do that?

No, he asks us.

I thank Deputy Adams. I note that for the first time in 40 years he actually does support something in regard to the European Union. In respect of his tirade for the last three minutes, he should have a chat with Deputy Martin himself-----

It was a wonderful compliment he gave me.

It is a cartel, a Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael cartel.

-----and walk around the quadrangle out there. Deputy Adams seems to have many issues with the Fianna Fáil Party.

Government is becoming very unpopular altogether.

Calamity Kenny.

It is important that we recognise-----

We do not have any army council.

-----that this is a partnership Government. This party that I lead does not have a majority and we have to rely on and co-operate with all the Members of the House and the different groupings and parties, including Deputy Adams' party.

Even Deputy Shane Ross.

That is why, under the new arrangements, he will be briefed and given information in respect of issues that are arising and that will arise, and that should be so. Deputy Adams's question today seems to be in respect of the Fianna Fáil Party.

We have put in place a process for dealing with contributions for water. The charges have been suspended for nine months and the issue will come back here for a vote by Members of this House. I have already stated my own party's views on water contributions. After a full and proper discussion on all these issues, Members will have a chance to vote on proposals which will come before them, hopefully within nine months.

Fianna Fáil made a very clear election manifesto commitment to scrap Irish Water and they should honour that commitment. The expert commission on water services was dreamt up to get them off the hook and Fine Gael bought into it because it needed the support of Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fáil was centrally involved in the rise and fall of Joe O'Toole and the Taoiseach has been around for long enough to know they will do exactly the same to him when it suits them.

We have real challenges after the Brexit vote, in addition to the crisis in homelessness and the health services, and that is where the Taoiseach's focus should be. I wish him well in that but he should work with everybody in this House in a real way for the benefit of the people of the island of Ireland, instead of piddling about with Fianna Fáil and doing little side deals in order to remain as Taoiseach

Does the Deputy have a question?

Let us have some really new politics. Let us decide to scrap water charges today by putting a motion to the Dáil to relieve households of this punitive tax.

I am glad that the Deputy leader of Sinn Féin, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, was able to tell me today, during discussions on the north inner city, that she and the group with whom she has been working will bring forward their terms of reference and that we will be able to proceed to set up an entity that will work with all the groups in the inner city, including Sinn Féin and other parties and community groups, for the betterment of the people there.

Wednesday seems to be anti-Fianna Fáil day.

That is every day.

The Brexit vote, concerns about our relationship with the UK, in particular on the common travel area and an open border, the need to maintain the improving trade links we have with the UK and the importance of being at negotiations when they commence, while maintaining our close links with the European Union, are important matters for us all and we will engage with anybody.

What is the Taoiseach's price?

I have had a lot of contact with people who export to and from Northern Ireland, and from here to Britain. I have heard their views and am considering how they might be taken into account. I will certainly follow through on that.

The Taoiseach did not even start to answer the question.