Workers’ Party councillor Ted Tynan has described Irish Water as the most expensive “white elephant” in the history of the state and has said  the company is being kept alive only by massive injections of public money and a government in deep denial.

Cllr. Tynan said he did not believe that the payment level of 43% claimed by the company was accurate. It was probably counting those who had registered as having paid, he maintained.

“It is already clear”, said Cllr. Tynan, “that Irish Water and its water meters will join the notorious E-voting machines on the scrapheap of history.  After two years of the worst kind of bullying and cajoling the government has singularly failed to gain public acceptance for this company.  They have failed to fool the people who know that this is a form of double taxation and a prelude to the privatisation of the public water supply and ever increasing charges”.

The Workers’ Party councillor said that the government and Irish Water management were “whistling past the graveyard” if they believed that the company would ever gain public acceptance.  “The figures released today no matter how much spin the government puts on them, give great hope to the million or more people who have refused to pay and show that they are winning and that they will beat the unjust and predatory water charges if they stand firm and continue to boycott Irish Water”, said Cllr. Tynan