By Anthony Sheridan
RTEs Mary Wilson was having great difficulty extracting from Fianna Fail’s Barry Cowen exactly what his party’s position was on water charges. Eventually, he said:
We made a submission to the expert commission saying that the existing regime in relation to water charges…blah, blah, blah…has to be abolished.
So far so good but Michael Martin sticks his head out his bedroom window every morning and, depending on which way the political wind is blowing, adopts Fianna Fail’s stance on water charges for that day.
Probably realising that he had made a mistake in giving a straight answer Cowen quickly reverted to traditional gombeen talk:
We have to have an open and frank debate from this commission to the committee in order to allow the committee make recommendations to the Dail to allow an informed decision be taken thereafter about how water services are paid for into the future.
Wilson’s reply was astonishing:
That’s perfectly clear.
Feck, I thought, that woman must have some brain.