The Workers’ Party have called for any incoming government to commit to reversing cuts made in recent years to pensioners’ fuel and telephone allowances, to compensate them for water charges paid in the past year.
Workers’ Party councillor in Dublin, Éilis Ryan, said; “The Workers’ Party has consistently argued for a boycott of Irish Water. This tactic has proved correct and successful, with the major parties now placing the scrapping water charges at the centre of negotiations to form a new government.”
However Cllr. Ryan voiced concern at calls that water charges already paid be refunded in full, saying: “Instead of granting an across-the-board refund, a more equitable way to compensate low and middle income earners who did pay the charges would be to those cuts to benefits and public services that impacted on them.” “For example, a reinstatement of pre-2011 telephone allowance rates for pensioners, combined with a five week extension of the winter fuel allowance, would put over € 260 per year back in pensioners’ pockets – comparable to water charges paid by a two-person household in 2015. Similarly, reversing third level fees hikes would more than compensate many middle income families who paid the water charges.”
The Workers’ Party councillor: “Reversals of austerity measures must be carried out in such a way as to benefit low and middle income earners first – not the top earners in the country, who never felt the impacts of austerity in the first place.”
Cllr. Ryan also dismissed today’s call by Sinn Féin for the establishment of an independent commission to decide the future of Irish Water which she described as the first step towards a u-turn on the issue. She concluded by saying that that no worker should lose their job or livelihood through the abolition of Irish Water.