Minister insists septic tanks are not child's play

DÁIL SKETCH:ISSUES RANGING from the €1.25 billion bondholder payment to the septic tank charge generated considerable invective in the Dáil yesterday.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams urged the Government to refuse to pay the bondholders and called for them to be named. Independent TD Shane Ross, on behalf of the Technical Group, also urged that the money not be paid. Fianna Fáil remained silent.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he did not know who the bondholders were, adding that the names had changed since the bonds were first acquired.

Looking towards the public gallery, Kenny asked where the money to provide services for those watching the proceedings, and the rest of the Irish people, would come from if we defaulted.

The gallery included schoolchildren who will, no doubt, recall in years to come that they visited the national parliament on a black day for the State.

They heard the Sinn Féin leader repeat his demand that the bondholders be named.

The Taoiseach said Adams was a “great man” to talk about openness, transparency and accountability.

“There were many occasions when he was not so open in his comments.”

Ross noted that it was a dark day for Ireland. He suggested that the Taoiseach look to the example of Russia, Iceland and Argentina, which wrote off debts and later returned to the bond markets.

Kenny remarked: “Yesterday, or the day before, I described Deputy Ross as a respected economist, but now I am not so sure.” Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae advised Ross that the Taoiseach had “put you up to pull you down”.

Challenging the Taoiseach’s economic credentials, Ross noted that Kenny’s “heroes, the troika” had halved his prediction of a 1.3 per cent growth rate for Ireland. Kenny said he stood by the figure.

Later, Healy-Rae was one of the Opposition TDs critical of the Government on the septic tank charge. By then, rural dwellers were gathering for a protest outside Leinster House.

Healy-Rae paid tribute to Oireachtas colleagues who had organised information evenings around the country.

“Misinformation,” snapped Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan.

As tempers rose, it got personal. Fine Gael’s Tom Hayes said Healy-Rae should remember that his father, former TD Jackie Healy-Rae, had voted with other TDs for the charge in the last Dáil.

Healy-Rae was in no mood to accept the invitation to commit political patricide.

“Deputy Tom Hayes will have to live for many lifetimes before he will achieve for his constituents what the former deputy he referred to achieved for his.”

He recalled that when growing up in Kilgarvan, Co Kerry, “we were told to have respect for our elders”.

And he was indignant that the Minister’s reply was that the tank had to be working when he had asked him to clarify the standard required.

“A child in national school would not have given me that answer.” Hogan observed: “The deputy is not a child.”

That’s for sure.