VIDEO: Court service fears of ‘excessive’ water bill caseload

The court service has privately told Environment Minister Alan Kelly it will be unable to cope with the “excessive burden” of up to 500,000 court cases if people continue to refuse to pay their water bills.

Senior officials for the judicial system stressed the point in a memo to the Labour deputy leader in recent days, warning that the service is already “overstretched” and would struggle to deal with the extra workload.

Under measures due to be signed off on by Cabinet later this month, anyone who refuses to pay their Irish Water bills will face post-general election court cases.

The move is considered a “last resort” by Government, which hopes people will register with the utility.

However, the court service has insisted that even if the threat is followed through, it will be difficult to process cases.

News of the court service advice came as two separate weekend rallies in Cork and Limerick saw a combined 3,000 people voice their opposition to the first water charge bills which began to be sent to homes last week.

During the rallies, Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins said the We Won’t Pay and Right2Water campaigns are preparing to run a “slate” of candidates “in every constituency” in the general election to capitalise on public anger.

A major Bin the Bills event is due to take place in Dublin this Saturday, at a time when Government is continuing to push for people to register with Irish Water to help the utility to pass a key EU financial security test next month.

DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS