A LABOUR TD has hit back at Fianna Fáil after being accused of ‘crocodile tears’ over the pay of senior Irish Water staff.
Back bencher Kevin Humphreys last night made public a parliamentary question that he had received an answer for, which outlined the pay of the executives at the new company.
Humphreys said that he would be following up the questions.
Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen, however said that any criticism of Irish Water that came from a government TD was disingenuous.
“All we have seen so far from Deputy Humphreys is crocodile tears about spending at Irish Water.
“Has Deputy Humphreys actually spoken to his colleagues Éamon Gilmore, Joan Burton and Brendan Howlin who opened the door to a lavish bonus system at Irish Water by going against the advice they received and awarding the contract to Bord Gais?”
Cowen said that he was concerned that Humphreys had received an answer when his own party colleagues had not.
Homework
Those remarks drew the ire of Humphreys however, who accused Fianna Fáil of “playing the man”.
“It is rather sad to see Fianna Fáil stoop so low to issue a press release attacking a backbencher who has worked to hold publicly funded agencies to account.
It would be a better use of their time if instead of playing the man, they did some research and homework of their own.
“It would appear, every morning when the Dáil Question Paper comes out they eagerly wait to read it, so they can see what Questions I have tabled then follow it up with their own. It was embarrassing to watch their leader ask the same questions I tabled last November at Leader’s Questions on 21 January.
“Of course, the hypocrisy of all this is lost on no one. This is the same Fianna Fail party that signed a blank cheque for the bankers, and whose current Leader oversaw the waste of millions in the Department of Health on outside consultants whether on reports he never implemented or systems like PPARS that never worked.”
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