Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

There have been decades of underinvestment in our water infrastructure. That underinvestment continues, and the danger is that it will be used as another excuse to try to introduce water charges, which still will not resolve the underinvestment. Last week, the OECD called for the reintroduction of water charges in Ireland. In case the Government gets the wrong idea, it must be put on notice that any attempt to reintroduce water charges will be met with a massive campaign of boycott and people power that will bring the Government down. People know that water charges have nothing to do with conservation and everything to do with privatisation.

When the Labour Party and Fine Gael attempted to introduce this austerity tax, they managed to waste hundreds of millions of euro on PR, consultants and unnecessary water meters. That money would have been much better spent on fixing the creaking water network and installing district meters to detect leaks. Instead of austerity charges on working people, we must tackle the big business water wasters, including the data centres, which can use up to 4.5 million litres of water per day. Instead of greenwashing austerity, we should tax the billionaires who have profited from the Covid-19 crisis and invest that money in a green jobs programme, including upgrading the water network.

There is a question to be posed. Why is the Government refusing to hold a referendum to prohibit privatisation of our water services? This was a major demand of the movement five years ago. It was something the Government at the time said it had no problem with and supported, yet five years later it still has not been done. It poses the question of whether the Government and right wing parties are still harbouring pipe dreams of selling the water network in the future.

Now the Government is facing serious industrial action by water workers, as it attempts to force them out of their current jobs in the councils into the Irish Water semi-State body. These workers, correctly, have major fears about the long-term impact of this on their rights and conditions at work and a continuing fear that Irish Water could be sold to Denis O'Brien, Veolia or some other private company down the road. The Government should drop this hare-brained scheme, keep the workers where they are, protect their terms and conditions and, finally, hold the referendum to prohibit privatisation of our water services and invest in fixing our water infrastructure.

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