The Minister stated that the issue of Irish water took up only “3-5 percent” of his time, despite anti-water protesters organising a sixth national day of protest.
Mr Alan Kelly remarked that half of Ireland’s 1.5 million customers were now paying their bills, a remarkable feat as it took RTÉ more than two decades to secure customers to pay for a tv licence.
“People talk about water. Water takes up about 3-5 percent of my time. Housing and homelessnes take up 50 percent of my time. We spend more time on this, managing it, addressing it, putting in structures. I have always seen this (housing) as the biggest challenge” stated the minister to The Irish Times.
Brendan Ogle, co-founder of the Right2Change movement which formed due to anti-water protests has described Minister Kelly’s comments on Irish Water as “arrogant”, due to the fact that many house owners are still struggling to their bills.
He said “For him (Minister Kelly) to dismiss the biggest social protest movement in decades shows he is completely unfit to be a Labour Party minister”.