Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I move:

“That Dáil Éireann:notes:

— that from 1 April, one week from now, the first bills for water charges will start to be sent out to householders around the country;

— that water charges are another austerity tax arising from the bailout of major banks, bondholders, developers and the European financial markets system from their disastrous gambling in the property bubble in pursuit of super profits;

— that the imposition of water charges is the beginning of a process of the market commodification of water that would, if accepted, lead to the privatisation of water distribution and supply;

— that the Labour Party was elected on a platform of opposing the imposition of water charges;

— the massive opposition to the imposition of the water charges and to any steps toward privatisation of water supply;

— that opposition to the water charges has been graphically manifested since 11 October last year in the massive national and local demonstrations calling for the abolition of the charges and of Irish Water-Uisce Éireann;

— that this opposition was forcefully manifested in the result of the Dublin South-West by-election when candidates opposed to the water charges won 60% of the vote and the candidate advocating a mass boycott of the charges was elected to Dáil Éireann;

— that widespread protests are ongoing against the installation of unwanted water meters around the country; and

— that hundreds of local campaigns against water charges have been established the length and breadth of the country;

strongly condemns:

— the arrests following an anti-water charges protest in Tallaght in November 2014; and notes the jailing of four anti-water charges activists for peaceful protests against the installation of water meters and the widespread use of the Garda Síochána against residents opposed to water meters in their communities; and

— any move by the Government to make private landlords, local authorities or voluntary housing associations into collectors of water charges for Irish Water by obliging them to deduct the charges from tenants’ deposits or increase rents in cases where tenants are boycotting the charges;

demands:

— the immediate abolition of water charges;

— progressive taxation, including on wealth, corporate profits and financial markets’ transactions, to fund the upgrading of the water supply services including remediation of the leaking national infrastructure (for example, based on an effective corporation tax rate of 11 per cent in 2013, every 1 per cent increase would yield €388 million while the European Commission estimates a financial transaction tax would yield in Ireland between €490 million and €730 million per year);

— the abolition of Irish Water-Uisce Éireann, with responsibility for water services to be vested in democratic local authority structures involving national co-ordination, and unlike previously, adequate investment in water infrastructure to meet society’s needs; and

— a major grants scheme to retrofit homes with water saving devices and technology that would save billions of litres of quality drinking water being discharged needlessly into the wastewater systems each year; and

calls for:

— mass non-payment by householders of the water charges bills when they are delivered in April and May since the Government will have proved it is not prepared to abide by the clear wish of a majority to abolish the charges;

— water charges, and the demand for water to be in public ownership, to be made central issues in the forthcoming general election if not resolved pre-election; and

— local anti-water charges campaigns to discuss standing candidates in the general election opposing the charges and austerity and based on an advocacy of mass non-payment, of actively mobilising the opposition to these charges and for a real alternative to the parties of austerity.”

I move the motion on behalf of the Deputies from the Socialist Party and the Anti-Austerity Alliance.

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