Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In a major blow to the Government’s misguided water charges policy, Irish Water has finally revealed that it managed to collect from only 43% of households who had been targeted to pay. This is despite the extraordinary lengths to which the Government has gone to force them to pay. In the face of widespread rejection of the water tax, the Government had resorted to coercion, or so it thought. This week it is ramming through legislation to pickpocket the incomes of already hard-pressed citizens to prop up the discredited Irish Water quango. Although the Taoiseach had hoped it would frighten a significant number of people to pay the bills they had received, he was wrong - it did not happen. This represents more than a challenge to him, his Government and Irish Water. He has been told in no uncertain terms that his water tax is going nowhere. He has been told that families across the State are not being cowed by threats from the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, or the Taoiseach's bribes.

Who are the 57% who have not paid? They are not people who, as the Taoiseach asserts, do not want to pay for anything, an insult he regularly levels at families.

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