Workers’ Party councillor Ted Tynan has called on the government to admit that it has been roundly defeated by the overwhelming force of public opinion on the water charges issue.
Cllr. Tynan said that the government was only abandoning the jailing of water charge protestors because the strategy was completely unworkable and could have involved the imprisonment of thousands of people for. Instead, he said, the government was now intent on using the state to collect what is a private debt, a strategy which the Workers’ Party councillor predicted would be equally unsuccessful.
“The latest proposals by Minister Alan Kelly”, said Cllr. Tynan, “amount to a last throw of a losing dice. Like the Thatcher government in Britain 25 years ago the government is now heading for a slow and painful climb down on water charges. They have thrown everything at those opposed to these unjust charges, from threats and false discounts to intimidation and lies. It has all failed and will continue to fail”.
“There is hardly a community in the state that hasn’t been energised into a campaign of mass opposition to water charges. Up to a million people in this small country have stood up and said no to water charges which they recognise as a prelude to privatisation. I am calling on Minister Kelly and his Fine Gael / Labour colleagues to admit their defeat now and abandon the failed entity that is Irish Water. Instead they should divert the funds already set aside into fixing the leaks caused by decades of deliberate neglect and properly fund local councils to repair the system without additional charges”, said Cllr. Tynan.