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Some placards pertaining to Denis O’Brien at Saturday’s protest against the installation of water metres in Dublin.

Meanwhile, in Ferrybank, Co. Waterford in the last hour…

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Via Call for a revolution in Waterford (Facebook)

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31 thoughts on “Faucet Circus

  1. Tony the Toy Gur

    “What do we want?”

    “Other people to pay for our goods and services”

    “When do we want it?”…

    1. Jess

      Thats a ridiculous straw man. What people don’t want in an extra bill when they’re struggling already, especially when paying to the fiasco that Irish water is. Its not too hard to understand,but I suppose its easier to be patronising than rather than engage with the argument

        1. Jess

          There are plenty of other options. Loading more bills on already stretched households is not the path of least resistance in this

          1. DoM

            Which is the option that results in the people protesting actually paying?

            I’m not even (necessarily) arguing against the idea of shifting the burden of tax up the income scale, I’m just saying either they want someone else to pay for it, or they’re offering to accept the money comes from some other source that they are ultimately paying for (tax increases or spending cuts).

            So are they offering to increase their contributions to the tax pool, or are they suggesting someone else should? I don’t think they’ve said specifically, but the answer seems pretty clear to me.

          2. Jess

            They don’t ‘want someone else to pay for it’. Its currently being payed through the tax system so its the same as saying they want to pay for someone elses.

            There are a myriad of places to reduce spending without having to give money to as dodgy a company as Irish water to pay for a service with whom you have no choice in supplier. You don’t need to have a manifesto in order to say ‘I cant afford this, find something else’. There are very well paid people in government employment whose job it is to figure this out and they are starting with people who are already stretched.

            You could remove it from the salaries, bonuses and consultancy fees we pay to these people in the first place. And if you’re going to say ‘its a drop in the ocean to the cost of maintaining water’, I find it funny that its always a drop in the ocean when it comes to taking a few hundred euro out of the pocket of those who can afford it, but not when taking it out of the pocket of families who cannot.

          3. Selfie Sensation

            Except its not actually being paid for through other taxes is it? Water rates were done away with in the 1970s and funding for the water system dropped through the floor. In the forty odd years since the Water system fell into a deplorable state and generation after generation of Irish people grew up with the idea and belief that Water is somehow “Free”.

          4. Jess

            Yes it was being paid through taxes. Funding for water purification and distribution did not stop in 1977.

            You think its wasn’t being paid for adequately during the country’s most prosperous period, but will now in the hands of a private operator with no rivals?

        1. Jess

          Yes it is. Its creating a false, easily defeated argument and attributing it to the protesters. An argument theyre not making

  2. ABM

    I have no issues paying for a water service. In fact, I would prefer to have a financial arrangement to supply a water service because if anything goes wrong I can chase the supplier.

    What I do have an issue with is:
    – no equivalent reduction in tax (what are the county councils doing now that they don’t have to provide a water service?)
    – no competition
    – Irish Water charges are astronomical compared to equivalent water companies in England

    The whole thing is a total cock up.

    Anyway, these people should have been protesting years ago. Smacks of lifestyle protesting to me with plenty of opportunist protest/single-issue politicians lining themselves up for 2016. These people (evidently none of them have jobs) are pawns in a much bigger game.

    1. JoeO

      “Evidently none of them have jobs.”
      Eh, the protest was on a Saturday. A lot of people do be off that day.

      1. well

        Theres a few jobless wonders that show up to every protest and seemingly are in the footage of most meter installations.

        1. Jess

          If they were unemployed, so what? If I was unemployed I would be doubly concerned about another bill coming in the door.

    2. Lilly

      “These people.” Oh the smug superiority. Were YOU protesting years ago? Better late than never. Agree though that we are now paying for our water twice. I want a tax rebate.

  3. Starina

    they installed them in Portobello last week and there was nary a protest, despite it being a rather protest-happy neighbourhood (lennox st trees, the Jewish museum).

  4. Colin

    Droves? You mean two squads. And who has time at 12 on a Monday to be out protesting? Wish my job was that facilitating.

    1. Mister Mister

      Taxi drivers evidently. They all know how to run the country better than anyone else don’t ya know.

  5. Advertising On Police Cars

    There were a bunch of protestors arrested outside GPO on Saturday for blocking O’Connell street, about 5 to 6 hauled off into garda wagons.

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