Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I propose to share time with Deputies Mick Wallace and Joan Collins.

The people of Ireland are not fools, and they recognise political trickery when they see it. Today, in the supposed concessions on water charges, they will recognise a transparent manoeuvre to get Fine Gael and the Labour Party past the next general election without being politically annihilated. It simply will not work. People have not turned out in their hundreds of thousands in October and November on the streets of Ireland demanding the abolition of water charges only to be conned by this poisoned carrot. People have not been turning out in their hundreds to public meetings, street meetings and events such as protests against water meters only to be assuaged by transparent political trickery. People are no fools, and they understand that the capped charge will rocket when it suits any establishment Government of the future. They understand the agenda. The aim of water charges is to partly fill the black hole left by the transfer of billions of euro in taxpayers' funds to the bankers and bondholders of Europe to save the European financial market system on foot of the crisis for which our people have no responsibility.

To do so, the Government proposes to gouge €1.2 billion from the pockets of ordinary people in parallel with the central taxation they pay directly, from which water services have been maintained and delivered for generations in this country. They understand the poisoned carrot, the charges with so-called concessions, will quickly go to €500 and €1,000 per household once the pressure passes. Therefore, the campaign for the abolition of water charges continues. What incredible contortions the Government is executing to establish the principle of a bankers' and bondholders' water tax. In April, July and October next year, the Government will look for €40 or €65 from households. In September, it will send €100 back to the same households. Imagine the incredible bureaucracy and wasted labour required to execute this idiotic circular maze. Truly, this is an Alice in Wonderland, or Alice in Joan-and-Enda land, scenario. Alice in Blunderland might be more apt. Hundreds of the workers tied up in knots doing this would be better off sourcing homes for the people made homeless by rack-renting landlords and the failure of the Government to provide any social housing.

The majority of ordinary people want to fight this and, if they have already registered, in April they will be sent a bill for €40 or €65. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain, in order to bring about the end of this water charge, by engaging in a nationwide boycott, just as, in the 1990s, a mass boycott and political pressure forced the abolition by Fine Gael and the Labour Party of the hated water charges at that stage. A mass refusal to pay the water bill in April of next year will leave the Government utterly exposed as one with no democratic credibility, suspended in midair, and will leave the water charges regime in tatters and impossible to implement.

In a press conference, the Minister said that if people were taken to court by Irish Water it would affect their credit rating. False. The Irish Credit Bureau, which is the agency of the banks, said only a few days ago that unpaid water charges would have no bearing on people's credit rating. I hope the Minister will correct that.

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