Turned Out Nice

at

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This afternoon.

Irish Water protestors assemble at the GPO, O’Connell Street, Dublin.

(Sam Boal/Photocall/Ireland)

Earlier….

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This lunchtime.

Outside Connolly Station, Dublin ahead of a Right2Water demonstration in Dublin city centre this afternoon.

More when we get it.

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland and Wendy Lyon)

Update:

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O’Connell Street, Dublin.

Photocall Ireland and  John McDonald

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43 thoughts on “Turned Out Nice

  1. TheSmallFella

    Well done, Folks, I couldn’t make it today due to work but the entire country, as well as our somewhat fragile and marketable principles of democracy, benefit by your actions today. Ignore the trolls and the begrudgers. Even Nature is smiling down on you today. Now, where is that long-awaited General Election?

      1. SweetPeteato

        They never said they were going to spend trillions upon bazillions on consultancy fees and contracts to companies owned by corrupt individuals.

      2. scottser

        No mate, some other people voted in a party with ill conceived notions of what constitutes an economic recovery.

      3. Ger

        Well I for one did not elect this poo-ey government and will continue to oppose the water meters

  2. Miko

    Great to see the free travel passes being used by these freeloaders…. They can stick their water meter up their bottoms though.

  3. Randy Ewing

    Yawn !!

    Great to see all these idiots out protesting against one of the fairest consumption taxes ever in this country, just like they did against the LPT.

    How do you think your social welfare get paid ? Fairies ?

    Be interesting to see the shock on the socialists and terrorists if they get any sort of power and figure out they’ll have to pay for all they things they’ve promised !

    1. Miko

      I suspect most people care more and paying more attention to the Rugby today then this bunch of freeloaders…

        1. Miko

          None of these people have any interest in current affairs. They only start protesting at the first charge they have to pay…

      1. Joe the Lion

        Personally I could not give one fupp about inbred force fed cackling geese rugger fluckers

    2. Formerly known as @ireland.com

      People might have an issue with water being used as a new means for DOB and other cronies to squeeze money from the masses.

  4. eoin hurley

    what irony. protesting just before world water day. The new report is out and it makes for grim reading.

    1. Soundings

      30-40,000 according to RTE.

      “thousands” according to the Examiner which includes a number of tweets remarking on the strong turnout.

      “large crowd” and “thousands” according to the Irish Times

      No estimate from Denis O’Brien’s media, at least not in the Independent, though there is reference to the disruption the protests will cause to the 375,000 people who come into the city centre on a Saturday.

  5. TransOpTrans

    Sex Workers Against Water Charges.

    Super. Great to see them out there protesting against Joan Burton’s Water Charge and Criminalize Sex brigade. Where’s Ivana Bacik today?

    1. Soundings

      Water workers against sex charges. They say they’ve been in relationships with their wives, girlfriends, husbands, boyfriends up to now, part-and-parcel of which is sex, and they should not be a new separate and additional charge for sex now.

      1. Ultravox

        I think the management of Irish Water have probably gone blind by now, such is the powerful nature of their relationship with themselves.

  6. DidntKnowIWasPayingTwice

    This is great. So as SF and AAA have been unambiguous that water should be paid for by central taxation, I’m really looking forward to my Group Water Scheme being funded by them after the next election. Until this movement of clarity from them, there was circa 500,000 of us who never realised we were paying twice. Thanks for standing up for us Paul, Gerry, Mary Lou etc.

    1. Spartacus

      If you want to get up on that cross, you’d better get in the queue behind Miko and Jonotti and a few others.

      Tick tock, Enda. Tickity tock.

      I’ll bet that there’s more than one or two FG households quietly burning effigies of Phearless Phil Hogan tonight!

  7. Eeejit

    Not a FG man (naturally you won’t believe me, nor FF btw) but I’ll put a small sum on FG winning (in partnership) the next general election.

    Those that think they have no chance need to open their eyes and ears to the wider fact that the majority of the population in this country are quietly (deliberate usage of that word) satisfied with the water charge as it now stands. So cheers to the protest for the interim charges cap – the protest is a victim of it’s own success in that regard. Most reasonable people realise the FG didn’t invent the Water Charge, it was always on the cards.

    Some people here and at these protests are living in a bubble of the like-minded – with every conversation with their peers affirming their own view of the situation. You do not enjoy the nationwide support you think you do. The next general election will prove that fact.

    When 70+% end up paying the charge, you’ll scramble for excuses – ‘the gov scared people into it’, ‘sure people feared they’d be cut off’ etc etc etc. But you’ll be wrong –

    There are people who say no to this protest as they believe that the best course of action to make their opinion known at the next election…

    There are people who think water tax hysteria is all a con by the far left. Surely USC is far worse a tax? Why are the left out protesting that? Problem there is it’s only people who actually work for a living that are paying that…

    They are people who understand the need for investment and that the argument that we already pay is bollox. If you believed that then the gov can’t raise taxes for anything.

    This is all my opinion of course, you may say I’m in a bubble too. But I think some people are in for a serious reality check when the next election comes round.

    1. Spartacus

      You had my attention until this: “it’s only people who actually work for a living that are paying that”. You have revealed yourself as a narrow minded fool.

      “some people are in for a serious reality check when the next election comes round”

      Agreed. FG & Lab candidates first and foremost for that reality check.

    2. Diddy

      Some fair points there.. BUT this adjusted price to get us all on the hook is what these protests have achieved.. It’s not gonna stay that cheap.. Otherwise why would they install meters?

    3. Soundings

      “The vast majority in the country are satisfied with the water charge as it currently stands. ”

      I’d tend to agree with you; you’re talking about €60 per annum for single-person households and €160 for other households. I’d say the vast majority could handle that. I also think there are some, an unfortunate minority who would find any new charge to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

      But no-one in this country, not the vast minority, but no-one. No-one believes the charge will remain at €60 per annum, and that it will increase to probably around €300-1,000 per annum (personally, I think €1,000 is scare-mongering, I think €300-600 is where it will be at in a couple of years). And that by accepting the principle of the charge today, you will be undermined in protesting against an increase.

  8. DidntKnowIWasPayingTwice

    Cross? Simple question… If domestic water is already paid for from central taxation, why is the fact that 100’s of thousands of households have had to pay separately for their water for ever not part and parcel of the “Right to Water” campaign? Or is this some type of selectively applied “right”??

    1. Spartacus

      Get back to us tomorrow once you’re sober. It’s hard enough to debate with idiots. Moreso when they’ve been drinking.

      1. DidntKnowIWasPayingTwice

        Wow, didn’t realize it was that kind of forum. The immediate resort to personal abuse, on the back of a legitimate question (not sure where you think we were debating?) speaks volumes. Hope you find some happiness in your life soon!

    2. Soundings

      Fair point.

      As far as I know, the people who are paying for their water at present have their own septic tanks, which they maintain themselves and they pay to have those tanks emptied from time to time. Some of these people also have their own group water schemes (around 120,000 according to the National Federation of Group Water Schemes), where water is provided by a private group, rather than the local authority and households pay for their usage of water. All of these households would be in rural areas generally not served by mains water and sewage services. Speaking to one such household with four people, their cost for septic tank maintenance and emptying and for the water supply is around €400 per annum.

      I don’t know what the Right2Water position is on these households, but you’d be talking about the guts of around €50m a year to fund 120,000 households at €400 each. As someone who is overall against water charges as presently envisioned, I would be supportive of subsidising such households. It seems like the most equitable thing to do.

      How would you pay for the €50m per annum to fund such equality? If memory serves, if you were to standardise the tax relief of pension contributions at 20%, then you’d generate around €75m a year in additional tax. It’s not rocket science. It’s about changes to make a more equal and fairer society.

  9. Truth in the News

    Has anyone a photo of the placard dipicting Enda Kenny hard at
    work licking Angela Merkels posterior….he had earlier practice this
    week on her cheeks.

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