Tag Archives: Irish Water

iriwhwater

Irish Water protest, O’Connell Street, Dublin 1 in August 2015

This Saturday, April 8, the Sinister Fringers are at it again.

But will you join the Walk of Shame?

Martin McMahon writes:

That rabble, that great unwashed and of course those dirty Dubs will take to the streets on Saturday to crow their victory over us good law abiding citizens.

It’s almost as if they don’t know that removing water costs from central taxation and giving the gains away in tax cuts to top earners like us is good for them too. When us rich folks have more money in our pockets, we occasionally drop a few coppers into the grubby outstretched hand of some homeless serf, everybody wins.

When the charges were first introduced the fringers complained that bills in excess of 600 were ‘too high’, I ask you, really? The price of one nice evening at the theatre with dinner afterwards is ‘too high’ a price for them to pay so that we can cut our top rate tax? Pull the other one!
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Out of the goodness of our hearts, we agreed to cap the charges at 260 until all the proles were paying before we’d up it over a grand and they still weren’t happy!

Two hundred and focking sixty euro people, that’s 1 bottle of half decent wine, just drink something cheaper for a night, problem solved. Enda was wrong to give an inch to those whingers, should have locked the whole lot of them up.

Now that we’ve ensured  a white collar only jury, that rabble rouser Murphy will get his comeuppance, the naivety of the hard left to think they’d get a fair trail in this country, Anglo friends stick together suckers.

It’s the country people I feel sorry for, forced to live in 6 bedroom mansions on sprawling lawns, they’ve been paying for water forever. Although forcing water charges on the sinister fringers won’t change the need for wells and septic tanks for our less fortunate country cousins, it will make them feel better to see the proles hammered into the ground, fair’s fair.

I hope they choke on their ‘Walk of Shame’, how dare they stand up to us. Why can’t they get it through their thick heads that they don’t matter, their votes don’t matter,

I know exactly where I and those like me won’t be on Saturday April 8th, we won’t be at Connolly or Heuston stations at 2pm.

Martin blogs at RamshornRepublic

Rollingnews

Earlier: A Tide In The Affairs Of Men

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This morning.

Leinster House, Government Buildings, Dublin 2

TDs, including Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin, Catherine Murphy, co-leader of the Social Democrats and Richard Boyd Barrett hold a press conference reacting to the Final Draft Report of the Joint Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services.

The final recommendations include refunds for householders who paid their charges, the funding of domestic water services through general taxation, and the installation of meters at apartment blocks.

However…

….these recommendations have resulted in a bitter political row between Fine Gael which is opposed to them, and Fianna Fáil, Sinn Fein and Solidarity, who support them.

FIGHT!

Water charges: FG does not have to act on report, says Varadkar (Irish Times)

Rollingnews

Update:

G’wan Catherine.

watercommittee

brendanyoung

From top: Water funding committee; Kildare County Council independent Councillor Brendan Young

The Oireachtas Committee on the Funding of Water is embroiled in last minute disagreements over recommendations for its final report which will be voted in the Dáil on April 14.

A situation former Environment Minister and irish Water enthusiast Alan Kelly described as “farcical” this morning.

So what are the sticking points?

Right2Water activist Brendan Young explains:

I have seen the recommendations for funding water. The Committee has rejected the domestic water charge regime proposed by Fine Gael and Labour.

But Fine Gael also wants a domestic water tax – clauses 1.4 and 1.5 of the recommendations to the Oireachtas Committee show this.

The Committee yesterday voted against Fine Gael and changed clause 1.4 a. to say funding should be “dedicated from within existing general taxation” – rather than allow a “dedicated” water tax.

While the Committee majority also voted to change the first sentence of Clause 1.5 to say “The Committee recommends that domestic water use should be funded through general taxation”, that clause still says “such funding must be clearly identifiable within existing taxation”.

This opens the door to an “identifiable” water tax to replace the charges. It opens the possibility of a water tax for PAYE workers…

…The Committee also voted to delete the proposal in clause 1.5 that the State should be a customer of the utility: if the State was to pay IW as its ‘customer’, it could be compelled under EU Competition law to allow other operators to compete to provide the service.

The recommendations also include metering of all new-build housing and apartment blocks, supposedly to tackle “wasteful use”.This is a Trojan Horse for future charges: Welsh Water told the Oireachtas Committee that the only function for domestic meters is to charge people. They said district meters are the best way to deal with leaks and big users, with which the Committee agrees.”

Councillor Brendan Young

Water charge issue ‘complete farce’ – Kelly (RTÉ)

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Above from left: Wicklow community activist Fiona Nichols with Unite official and Right2Water coordinator Brendan Ogle and Solidarity TD Paul Murphy

This morning.

Buswells Hotel, Dublin 2

Right2Water activists, including Brendan Ogle and Paul Murphy,  welcomed the “now inevitable” ending of domestic water charges and blanket metering programme, the “consensus that there must be a referendum on protecting the ownership of the public water system in the Constitution” and called on all charges against water protesters to be dropped.

Community campaigner Fiona Nichols, from Wicklow added:

“This is our win, it is a win for a peoples’ movement all over Ireland, but while it is a massive win it is also a partial win. We want all single meters gone.

These meters save nothing, suck up money needed to fix leaks and ultimately they become the hardware of water privatisation”

Details of the planned Right2Water demonstration  in Dublin next Saturday were also confirmed.

to wit:

right2water

FIGHT!

Right2Water (Facebook)

right 2 water 390_90504910 Right 2 wATER 401_90504907

This afternoon.

Buswell’s Hotel, Dublin 2

Right2Water’s Brendan Ogle and Sinn Féin’s Jonathan O Brien TD announce plans to have what they have entitled ‘ the Last Push ‘ demonstration on April 8 in Dublin city.

Mr Ogle said:

“The demonstration on April 8th will allow the public to demonstrate that this issue is not an issue of political opportunism but is, and always has been, about vindication of our human Right2Water by paying for our water and sanitation through the exemplary model of progressive taxation.

I would like to reiterate our view that charges should be abolished in their entirety and that water metering, which is an enabler of charges, should also be abolished and the associated funds invested instead in our antiquated and leaking water infrastructure.“

Fight!

Right2Water (Facebook)

Rollingnews

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This afternoon.

At a meeting of the Joint Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services.

The committee discussed the matter of ‘public engagement and transparency’ with officials from the Commission for Energy Regulation, Irish Water, and the Public Water Forum.

It also held a vote on whether to hear from representatives of the Right2Water group.

It’s being reported that Fine Gael lost the vote 6-12 with the committee’s other members grouping together to ensure Right2Water representatives could speak next Tuesday.

The six Fine Gael TDs on the committee are: TDs Colm Brophy, Jim Daly, Alan Farrell, Martin Heydon, Kate O’Connell and Senator Paudie Coffey.

Government beaten in vote over future of water services (The Nationalist) 

 

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This afternoon.

A meeting of the joint committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services is taking place.

From the meeting…

Watch live here

Previously: At The Water Committee Meeting

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Michael McNicholas, CEO of Irish Water’s parent company Ervia at a meeting of the Joint Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services

Right now.

The Joint Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services is under way with representatives of the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Irish Water, and the Commission for Energy Regulation in attendance.

The chief executive of Irish Water’s parent company Ervia, Michael McNicholas just gave his opening statement.

Readers may recall how the Irish Mail on Sunday, on November 23, 2104, reported that Mr McNicholas, the former CEO of NTR, had shares worth €1million in NTR, which made €2million a year from Irish Water contracts.

It also reported that NTR owned 50% of Celtic Anglian Water Ltd (CAW) which had contracts with Irish Water for meter installation and waste water worth €4million a year.

Good times.

Watch live here.

Earlier: Stop That

Previously: Murky, Murky, Murky