They All Must Go

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From top: Joe O’Toole; Xavier Leflaive, Gritta Nottelman and Peter Peacock of the government’s expert commission on water charges.

“People voted a certain way, Leinster House is not prepared to grasp that particular nettle, so we have to find a solution that will have enough sugar on it to make the medicine go down easily.”

Joe O’Toole on Newstalk Breakfast, June 30, 2016

Paul Murphy TD writes:

Joe O’Toole has been forced to resign as chair of the supposedly neutral expert commission not because he believed its job was to add enough sugar to make water charges, but because he gave the game away.

In his resignation statement, he declared:

“I am comfortable with the fact that I put my views honestly and transparently on the record. It is regrettable that my straight-talking has caused difficulties for others but in that regard I am unlikely to change anytime soon.”

Anybody who pays attention to politics will know that the establishment of ‘independent’ commissions to look into things is the oldest trick in the book. The aim is usually to take heat out of an issue in order to be able to return later to it.

The issue of the expert commission on water charges is no different. The government has faced a mass movement of opposition on water charges – with significant protests, a mass boycott and that reflected in the general election.

The result is a Dail where about 70% of TDs have a mandate to end water charges and abolish Irish Water.

Yet, Fine Gael in particular remains committed to bringing water charges back and Fianna Fáil is far from committed to really oppose them.

So between them, they agreed the proposal of suspension of water charges and the establishment of this water commission to ‘look into it’.

It, as Joe O’Toole let slip, has a predetermined outcome, which will be some form of water charges.

The ‘experts’ will have spoken and we will be told by large sections of the media that it is deeply irresponsible not to go along with water charges.

Who are those experts?

Well many of them are connected to water privatisation.

That includes Xavier Leflaive of the OECD who has previously written that

“Water pricing can be used to signal scarcity and to create incentives for efficient water use in all sectors (e.g. agriculture, industry, domestic)”,

Peter Peacock who is chair of the Customer Forum for Water Scotland, and Gritta Nottelman who works for a private Dutch water company.

This elevation of supposedly neutral experts is of course a part of the technocratisation of politics, what Peter Mair described as the “hollowing of western democracy”.

We have had a thorough debate on water charges over the past years. People engaged in street meetings, in mass protests, in campaigning organisations.

They then spoke – decisively, in protest, in a majority of people boycotting and in the general election.

The problem the government has is that they spoke the wrong way and therefore a way has to be found around them.

Right2Water has agreed a further major national protest on Saturday,  September 17.

This will be an opportunity for a renewed call for the attempts to subvert the wishes of people to end. The so-called expert commission should go.

The bullying from the European Commission should not be heeded.

The Dáil should simply act to abolish water charges and Irish Water and provide for the necessary substantial investment in water infrastructure paid for through progressive taxation.

Paul Murphy is a TD Anti Austerity Alliance. Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulmurphy/AAA

Earlier: Glug

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29 thoughts on “They All Must Go

  1. some old queen

    No surprise Murphy is going in for the kill. If this clown was so biased then god knows what other parameters are set in place. Blunder after blunder. Incredible stuff.

  2. Adamski

    “Progressive taxation”. Paul Murphy’s simplistic solution to everything.
    I’d love to hear him properly elaborate what precisely he means be that. Tax the billionaires and free money for the proletariat I suspect.

    1. Cantankerous Fossil

      Yes, the only sustainable solution is: Tax the proletariat and free money for the billionaires.

  3. Sheik Yahbouti

    Couldn’t agree more. This is an absolute negation of democracy when a sitting Government and opposition conspire to thwart the express wishes of the people. When did the people of Ireland become the enemies of “the State”, to be duped, deceived and if necessary threatened and harrassed by our self appointed Betters? It appears to me that since the foundation of this state, successive regimes have conspired against their own people to hold on to power and access to the trough. However, I would venture to propose that the current government and its immediate predecessor have been the most arrogant and insulting.

  4. Water Boy

    So Joe got nailed by a journalist for speaking his mind before or after the formal interview, now we are expected to believe someone who believes water CAN work is so tainted that they must be removed

    “Water pricing can be used to signal scarcity and to create incentives for efficient water use in all sectors (e.g. agriculture, industry, domestic)”,

    It is suggested that the only bias in circulation is a UCD graduate via the European Parliament and now the Dail who is simply on a search and destroy mission for a concept that is used in every other country in Europe and the rest of the developed world. Why you ask? Because he saw how it worked for Jack Lynch and Bertie Ahern and wants to be loved as the man who gave you what you wanted free. Forget the fact that both of those idiots bankrupted the country leading to 17 lost years between them, this is about populism and Paul must be the star of the show.

    1. Sheik Yahbouti

      Hot from the FG “frape room”, or is it IW? Why did Paris and Berlin remunicipalise water services? Why is there a current struggle against Nestle, Veolia, CocaCola and the rest in many countries? Try informing yourself. “Ooh, everybody’s doing it, so we should – the big boys say so”.

    2. some old queen

      Irish Water could not cover it’s own costs let alone fix a single pipe. This is not some radical left wing ideal of everything for nothing, it is consultants strutting around on two grand a day telling pension watchers what time it is.

      Water CAN work. Is this going to be the new slogan? Try again love.

    3. Jimk

      We are paying for water period, we also are payingBack a odious debt 42% also paying back 9B Interest, the Eu is controlled by unelected bureaucrats it is corrupt,

  5. Truth in the News

    Those who are left after O’Toole need to be booted out too, as they are biased
    in a certain direction, how come the Government did not appoint members from
    anti water charges side to balance the commission, indeed all the commission
    is a delaying tactic, O’Toole was a member of the Injuries Compensation Board
    we need also to find out the level of claims that this body awarded and that were
    subsequently challenged in the Courts with the award of higher compensation.
    The Board does not provide statistics on this at all, maybe Joe has the figures.

  6. rugbylane

    Come come, nobody actually believed that this bunch had any other outcome in mind other than to promote the monetisation of water did you?

    We all know the score, in the end they will promote the monetisation (and ultimately privatisation) of water. The “sugar” will be reduced costs for, what, a couple of years maybe?

    After two years of “cheap” water, we’ll all be signed up and and can expect typical household bills of about €1000 per annum.

    and you know what, we’ll all give in in the end.

    except me. I wont quit

  7. Shane

    All that is happening is the government are waiting for our fatigue to kick in so that we are so tired of hearing all this crap talk we just bend or break to their will. It’s a trick they use over and over…..
    God I’m tired of it all

  8. dav

    We must stop the privatisation of our nations water which will only benefit the blushirt paymasters and their flunkies in government

  9. martco

    can’t understand why this is all such a shocker for everyone….”the GOVERNMENT’s expert commission on water charges” like the clue is in the name, no??

    this very idea that the Government + Civil Service are there to serve the population on some mandate is the core of the joke itself….majority/minority/look at the birdys….none of it matters

    cant wait till “the GOVERNMENT’s expert (commission/committay/board/citizens assembly/group/herd/new politics forum……) on FFA and the 8th gets rolling

  10. Alastair

    O’Toole, however indiscreet he was, is right of course. Any truly independent panel is going to recognise that a metered user pays model for water services (including the municipalised models) offers the best outcomes in terms of sustainability, monitoring, fault-finding, and really shouldn’t be contentious. That’s why there’s precious little focus by socialist parties across Europe on overturning that model – it’s accepted as sensible. All that Paul Murphy should be campaigning for is the application of a meaningful affordability exemption. Even if you don’t buy into the benefits of the measured user-pays model, there’s the reality of the rules we opted to follow in terms of EU fines – it’s going to get costly pretty quickly if we don’t meet the obligations we commited ourselves to.

    1. Eamonn Moran

      Whether O’Toole is right or wrong is sooo not the point. If you are asked to chair a commission to investigate something you cant have strong views on one side. Imagine they set up a commission to end the Death penalty in the US but the judge the picked to chair it had previously and consistently argued in favour of the death penalty.
      Most people would realise this would exempt them.
      The lack of logic shown by O’Toole in this matter speak volumes to the mans intellect. I for one am glad he showed such arrogance and Stupidity.
      He actually explained his role as a suger coating exersize for a predetermined outcome. Someone call the men in white coats.

      There is a more important general point. For years Ministers have given inquiry jobs to those they new already agreed with their position. Just Yesterday minister Dennis Noughton (FG) announced a result from KPMG of an report he asked them to do in relation to whether the Rural Broadband network should be public or private. Surprise Surprise KPMG thought it would make sense to privatise it. And so the FG minister is doing so. When was the last time any of the big consultancy players (KPMG, Earnst and young, PWC, Accenture, Deloite etc) were asked to adjudicate between a public and private option and sided with the public option?
      Rememmber when Brian Cowan declared n the aftermath of the Crash that all his decisions were made using the best available advise? Well as with everything else, it depends who you ask.

      1. hex

        “Whether O’Toole is right or wrong is sooo not the point.”

        Well, it’s the point I’m making. O’Toole was obviously pretty inept (to say the least) in his handling of the whole thing, but what if the best available advise is that – given an impartial review of the situation – we need to re-introduce water charges? Holding a personal opinion doesn’t negate an ability to adjudge a situation impartially – if it did, we may as just well give up on the entire judicial and jury system for a start.

    2. some old queen

      @ Alistair.

      The rights and wrongs of metering or indeed water charges is not the issue. Most people would be willing to pay a single charge if there were no other indirect costs levied. But that is not the case so you cannot compare Ireland to other countries without taking those other taxes into account. My naive understanding is that this was what the commission was set up to review. Obviously not.

      As for the EU fines, as you well know that is not set in stone and could quite easily be legally challenged if the political will was there to do so.

      1. hex

        The EU fines are indeed set in stone – we signed up to a legally binding commitment in the Water Framework Directive. And I’m not buying this notion that we’re supposed to have uniquely applicable indirect taxation. We’re not in any particularly special ranking regarding the overall taxation burden (income, consumption, property, indirect levies) placed on citizens here, in the context of the EU.

  11. Karen

    I really feel that democracy is dead is this country. The government treat the people with utter contempt, the EU is nothing more than a dictatorship that our government has allowed itself to be bribed into submission, handing over control of our laws, and when it suits them (They get fined every year for imposing VRT which is illegal, but the revenue it generates out way the fines) use the EU to say Oh we are not allowed, such BS. So much for post election ‘the people have spoken and we need a new approach to politics.’ This independent commission is a farce and just another stalling tactic. I despair, I really do. Thanks to Paul Murphy for continuing to fight for the people.

    1. hex

      The EU doesn’t fine the state for applying VRT – not a cent. And we’re not the only state in the EU to apply VRT. And a majority of voters opted to put parties in the Dail that either support water charges now, or water charges after a convenient period of deliberation – that’s the democratic reality.

  12. Mulder

    Names that match politics.
    Joe o` Toole or of the tools.
    Not forgetting the spanners.

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