A tax too far for many taxpayers - Water charges

Any hope the Government might have harboured that reductions in water charges would mollify the public at large has been surely dashed by the tens of thousands of people who took to the streets of Dublin yesterday.

Estimates of the numbers involved in the protest – the third in the past three months – vary wildly. The organisers, Right2Water, estimate that over 100,000 people attended the protest, while gardaí have put the figure at “30,000-plus”.

Buses carrying protesters came from Galway, Sligo, Cork, Waterford, Kerry, Tipperary, Clare, and Limerick yesterday morning, with thousands more travelling by train and car to Dublin. Whatever the final figure, there is little doubt that huge numbers came to voice their concern over continuing austerity and at the intransigence of the Coalition in pushing ahead with plans to charge domestic households for water.

While Right2Water promised a peaceful, ‘family friendly’ protest, it was clear from early afternoon that it had the potential to turn nasty. It was disturbing to see gardaí wearing body armour within metres of Leinster House as some sectors of the large crowd in the vicinity became enraged at being prevented from making their voices heard within earshot of members of the Oireachtas.

Water bottles and other missiles were thrown at gardaí on Kildare Street as protesters attempted to break through a barrier, with uniformed gardai seeking to reinforce it.

The Government remains stubbornly resolute. Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly insists that he does not envisage any more changes to the water charges. He also said he has not seen a realistic alternative from the opposition on how to pay the billions needed to improve water infrastructure and stop the leaks in the system.

Mr Kelly’s stance was echoed yesterday by Minister of State Paudie Coffey who said there would be no change in the Government’s policy despite yesterday’s protest.

Mr Coffey said the Government had moved as far as it can and that alternatives proposed by opponents such as Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy are not workable. “I think if we look closely at what the economic argument is, it’s to raise further taxes on working people to pay for this water,” he said, speaking on RTÉ radio.

That may well be so, but this is no longer an economic argument. It is about being pushed too far. While people have exhibited extraordinary stoicism in accepting enforced austerity, this is, for hundreds of thousands, a tax too far.

By pressing ahead with the charges, the Government has managed to do what even the troika failed to accomplish and that is to bring the Irish nation onto the streets.

Ministers Kelly and Coffey – along with their Coalition colleagues – are whistling in the wind if they think that this sign of collective anger is going to dissipate anytime soon. Another protest is planned in Cobh, Co Cork, for today and when the bills for water start coming through the door next April there is bound to be further demonstrations.

This is people power. The Government had better capitulate to the will of the electorate or get used to it.