Next Government needs to abolish Irish Water and Water Charges
Speaking on the water charges and what he described as debacle that is Irish Water Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley said :
We cannot afford to continue to throw money at Irish Water. The debacle that is Irish Water has seen millions upon millions of euros wasted in implementing an unfair and unjust tax that hits low and middle income families hardest. Irish Water and domestic water charges must go. There has already been €100m wasted on consultants and €540m wasted on meters that are now obsolete.
Department of Finance figures show the cost of abolishing water charges would be €209m per annum. However the actual net cost is just €80m as the water conservation grant would no longer be available. The net cost of €80m is based on 100% of households paying their bills, and we know from recent figures released by Irish Water that, at best, payment levels are hovering around 50%.
Recently the Labour / Fine Gael Government approved the Civil Debt Bill which allows Irish Water to go to court to seek an attachment order on people’s wages and pensions once the amount owed reaches €500.
The Government has now taken desperate measures by using the courts in this way. This will only cause havoc in our already overloaded legal system and courts.
To conclude Deputy Stanley said
“Sinn Féin has given a clear commitment that we will abolish domestic water charges, end the current metering project and redirect funding into direct investment in water infrastructure such as replacing leaking pipes. Sinn Féin is the only party that is committed to doing that if in Government.
“We will also hold a referendum to enshrine public ownership of Ireland’s water services in the Constitution so that no future Government can offload one of our most vital assets into private ownership.”
