Water charges - Like it or not, we will all have to pay

IT seems that the Government has finally accepted that if the water charge regime is to succeed and sustain its legitimacy, then they must establish a mechanism to collect the charge from those who can pay but refuse to.

Echoing remarks made by his cabinet colleague Environment Minister Alan Kelly, Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin said yesterday that people could not be allowed to refuse to pay if they were in a position to do so. “There can’t be a position where any of us decide not to pay our bills,” he said.

It may be significant, too, that the first two ministers to acknowledge this inevitability are Labour deputies.