No to Service Charges
07/09/2011 - 15:14 Etc/GMT Date & Time: Saturday 10th September 2011 -13:30
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* ATTEMPTS TO RE-INTRODUCE DOMESTIC WATER TAX WILL BE VIGOROUSLY OPPOSED – WARNS ANTI-WATER TAX CAMPAIGN * RESIDENTS WILL NOT PAY ON THE DOUBLE FOR GOVERNMENT INACTION Responding to the announcement by Minister Gormley of his intention to implement water charges and meters as part what he calls a major investment in water infrastructure, campaigners warned that his plans will be met with a mass campaign of civil disobedience, the length and breath of the country, which will make the charge uncollectable. Investment in water infrastructure has long been inadequate. Government starving of local authority funds are compounding the problem, and now the bill for their inaction is to be borne by hard-pressed residents. This will not be tolerated. Half of the state’s housing stock has been built since we succeeded in abolishing this tax in the mid-1990s, yet precious little water conservation measures were put in place in terms of rain water harvesting or dual flush toilets. Now they want to introduce meters. This exposes the con, if this was about conservation, they would be investing far more and would be linking it with new building regulations, all meters do is to measure consumption, they don't alter it. Their only purpose to commodify an essential public service and facilitate a direct charge. Workers and pensioners cannot afford to pay on the double. We all pay through our central taxation. The investment in infrastruture upgrade announced by the Minister pales into insignificance to the €12 billion to Anglo Irish Bank, and the tens of billions that will be paid by the taxpayer to the other banks and NAMA. |
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27/03/2010 - 12:30 27/03/2010 - 14:00 Etc/GMT When: Sat, March 27, 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Where: Tower Hotel, Waterford (map)
Description
The Green Party has been the main instigator of the latest attempt to foist a water tax. Show your opposition to this policy by joining the protest outside the Green Party Conference
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 The government suggests that the current water crisis was caused by wasteful householders running their water to prevent their pipes from freezing and irresponsibly not conserving water. However the authorities and engineers dealing with the water system have long flagged the perilous state of our infrastructure to the government, which they have consistently ignored. |
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In a statement, the People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) has said that systematic failure on the part of the government to invest in upgrading the water infrastructure, despite knowledge of its perilous condition, is the real reason that the water system has been plunged into crisis by recent weather conditions.
PBPA said the government have been fully aware over recent years of the need to urgently replace water mains across the country with modern and more robust piping and to increase reservoir capacity but had simply failed to provide the resources to do this.
 Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett said: “The massive hardship now being experienced by hundreds of thousands of people – particularly families with children and the elderly – is not the unfortunate result of extreme weather conditions; it is the result of systemic government failure.
The government are dishonestly suggesting that the current water crisis is purely the result of freak weather conditions or because of householders irresponsibly running taps. This is pure hypocrisy and dishonesty. |
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