Gavin Mendel-Gleason
Gavin Mendel-Gleason, Dublin representative for the party, said:
“Dublin continues to see as much as 57% of water lost to leaks, as compared with around 25% in London. Irish Water have not even begun to address this. As of 2017, we had spent close to half a billion euro on installing meters which have now barely been used. Why was this money not spent on urgent conservation measures instead?”
“Clearly, in the context of a drought, we must do everything in our power to conserve water. But we should also ask how we ended up at this point. Everybody knew the urgency of the need for infrastructural investment.”
Mendel-Gleason continued:
“The government wanted to use water charges to squeeze yet more money out of the same group of people – low- and middle-income workers. Once it became clear that was not going to be possible, the issue of upgrading our water infrastructure was conveniently dropped from the table.”
The Workers’ Party representative concluded:
“It is notable that, as soon as a problem emerged, it was ordinary homes which were first targeted for restrictions – not the golf courses, not the car washes.
“What we really need is public investment in public services – whether that be water, health or housing. And this is always the only thing our government is totally unwilling to do.”