Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

8 o’clock

It is a microcosm of a system in which things operate for the 1% against the interests of the 99% and where power is concentrated economically, in the media and politically in an extremely small number of hands.

Out of the movement against water charges comes the potential to utterly change politics in Ireland. It has already changed politics significantly but this issue has the potential to build the biggest, most significant, radical left challenge that has ever been mounted. The movement must have a political reflection, particularly in the context of all the bullying and the threat of court cases. In this motion we are calling for non-payment campaigns across the country and for discussions about standing candidates against the parties of austerity on a platform of non-payment of the water charges. We are calling for a principled stand against austerity and we rule out coalition with any of the establishment parties. We will use the platform of the Dáil to mobilise the power of working class people from below, to bring an end to the logic of austerity and of capitalism. Our challenge can involve existing left groups and existing left Independents but, most important, it can involve new, fresh forces who have not previously been involved in politics. Such people may not consider themselves as being in politics right now but they could stand and take seats from the austerity parties in this election so that we have a stance in almost every constituency in the country with perhaps over 20 Deputies being elected.

The other issue the Government is scared of is the EUROSTAT test. The latest manual of how the EUROSTAT test will operate makes it clear that to determine whether a producer is a market producer it must sell its products at an economically significant price which in practice would be assessed if the sales of the producer cover a majority of the production costs, that is, over 50%. It also states that this 50% test should be applied by looking over a range of years and only if the test holds for several years should it be applied strictly. In other words the test will have to be redone whenever non-payment has kicked in. An objective look at this will indicate that if there is any significant level of non-payment the Government is in trouble in respect of the EUROSTAT test. The whole model of off-balance sheet financing will be in crisis and the Government will itself face a political crisis.

This gets to the heart of what this is all about. It is a bit strange that, just a week out from bills coming out, we have to ask what the real agenda is but we have to do it because the numbers involved in Irish Water do not add up in terms of raising revenue, either for the State or Irish Water. During a debate in December it became clear that if everybody paid and everybody applied for the water conservation grant it would raise €90 million, not taking into account the cost of actually getting the money which itself will be greater than €90 million. The Government is introducing a charge that will lose money rather than raise it. Water charges are a revenue-losing exercise so why is it happening? What is the agenda behind them and why is the Labour Party willing to face complete annihilation over this issue? One reason is that it is part of shifting taxation in the longer term away from taxing profits, wealth and high income towards regressive taxation on working class people. Second, it is about privatisation, which is a long-term strategic goal of Irish Water.

Where did Irish Water come from? It came from a memorandum of understanding signed by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party in 2010. In other words, it came from the troika - the same troika included in the memoranda with Portugal and Greece to privatise their respective water companies. It represents a clear agenda coming from the European establishment. In Ireland we did not have any charges and our water was not commodified so a vital precondition before privatisation was introducing those charges. It is the dark forces the former Minister referred to. The major water corporations, including some of the biggest companies in the world such as Veolia, are profit-hungry and ruthless in pursuing those profits. Privatisation is not just a future threat - it is happening right now from below with design, build and operate contracts given to the same companies, including Veolia, which operates large parts of the water infrastructure on a for-profit basis. It is also happening from above with off-balance sheet funding of Irish Water.

People should ask themselves why the Government is doing it. It is not because there is any money for free, though one would get the impression from the Government that there was, as the fact that it is off balance sheet means any money borrowed by Irish Water will have to be paid for by us through water charges. It is not because bringing it onto the balance sheet would mean Ireland would be over the deficit requirements of the EU because it would not mean that. It is not because it would bring in any more money for investment because it will not, as the money could be invested straight from Government or through Government borrowing at a lower rate than Irish Water would be able to borrow. So why is it happening? What is happening is the privatisation of the income stream of Irish Water. That is exactly what happened in the case of Detroit Water, which was owned by the city but whose funding was through the bond markets. The bond owners are interested in only one thing, which is their return, and that is why they were able to apply massive pressure to demand that water was cut off when people did not pay in time. The Government's plan is off-balance sheet financing to sell off the bonds and the income stream on the international financial markets.

The Government suggests that those who are not for water charges are for dilapidated water infrastructure. That is not the case. It is not our fault in the anti-austerity alliance that we have a crisis in water infrastructure - it is the fault of this and the previous Governments which have not invested. One does not need water charges to have investment and if there are water charges there is no guarantee there will be investment. There is a choice here. It is a choice between regressive taxation and the privatisation of an income stream, leading to a charge that will take 2% of the disposable income of the bottom 10% and less than 0.2% of the income of the top 10%, or a central, progressive taxation where those who have more pay more, through corporation tax, a financial transaction tax and tax on the highest earners.

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