Householders urged not to pay charges by left-wing groups

A CAMPAIGN calling for the non-payment of household and waste charges has been launched by a selection of left-wing political groups, trade unions and community organisations.

Warning that charges will eventually increase six-fold, the group is to base its campaign on the successful anti-water charges protest of the 1990s, in which thousands of householders refused to pay the charge and hundreds ended up in court.

Eventually, with 50% of Dublin residents in three local authority areas not paying, the charges were abolished by the then environment minister Brendan Howlin.

Socialist party TD Clare Daly said the group will use the “tried and tested methods” that were so successful in the 1990s.

“If we all stick together and decide not to pay, even if we are being intimidated, we will end these payments as the numbers just won’t be there and so the charges won’t generate the necessary income,” she said.

A national organising forum is being held this Saturday with the aim of building the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes throughout the country.

Already, up to 100 meetings are planned for communities around Dublin. The organisers say householders are at a “financial breaking point” and don’t have the resources to pay.

“Before this unjust charge is implemented in January there will be in place a visible campaign capable of getting information into the communities and responding to every threat that comes from the government to bully people into payment,” said the Socialist Party’s Michael O’Brien.

Irish homeowners have not paid property tax since Fianna Fáil won a landslide victory in the 1977 general election on their platform of abolishing property rates and car tax.