Water already paid for – new tax will meet mass resistance

The Campaign Against Household & Water Taxes (CAHWT) predicts mass
opposition to any attempts to impose a tax on water.

Householders simply cannot take another burden, following household and a
likely property tax.

The CAHWT pledges to organise a mass grassroots campaign on this issue in
every estate, town and village.

“Water is already paid for from central taxation. It was never ‘free’, so
talk of a free allocation is nonsense. To add insult to injury, the
government will shove the costs of charging on top of the householder at an
inflated rate,” says John Lyons of the CAHWT.

“The only purpose in setting up Irish Water is to pave the way for the
eventual privatisation of water – a bonanza to be handed over to a private
operator to profiteer from a vital resource. Otherwise, the government
would leave water in control of local authorities, ” says Mr Lyons.

“This is yet another natural resource that would be handed to the private
sector, charging residents at will, as we have seen with waste collection
companies.”

Gregor Kerr of CAHWT said: “The prediction by the CAHWT that domestic
charges would quickly amount to €1,000 is now evident. Proposals for water
metering and charges on top of a home tax will be met with massive
resistance — as we saw with the household tax recently and with the
successful campaign against water carges in the 1990s.”

” That campaign led to a derogation from domestic water charges by the EU,
which the government now wants to scrap.”

“CAHWT will organise meetings and campaigns throughout the country against
water charges. We successfully made the household tax one of the biggest
campaigns in recent decades. Water charges will be even more forcefully
opposed.”