Workers Party local election candidate James Coughlan has said that the so-called free allowance of water to householders is a cruel trick designed to deceive low income families into believing they were going to be protected from hefty water charges.
Churchfield based Mr. Coughlan, who is standing in Cork City North West, said the move was a scam concocted by the Labour Party out of desperation in the face of electoral meltdown.
“The free water allowance is a hoax”, said James Coughlan. “It is merely a shoddy attempt to cover up the certainty that water charges will cripple working class families and cause huge distress to people who are already hurting from six years of austerity”
The Workers’ Party candidate said that water charges were only the first step in a move to privatise water and once that happened there would be a privatisation of public services on a massive scale with a whole raft of additional charges for services already funded through taxation.
“Those on low and middle incomes can give no more. They have been bled dry by this government and they are hurting. They have no choice but to make a stand on the issue of water charges which are a double taxation. A red line has been crossed by this government and no amount of spin from them or their Fianna Fáil predecessors can hide that stark reality”.