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offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

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Human Rights in Ireland
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Top Scientists Confirm Covid Shots Cause Heart Attacks in Children Sun Oct 05, 2025 20:31 | imc

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offsite link Israeli Human Rights Group B'Tselem finally Admits It is Genocide releasing Our Genocide report Fri Aug 01, 2025 23:54 | 1 of indy

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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link GDP Growth? No, We?re Already in a Recession Thu Oct 23, 2025 13:00 | David Craig
The economy supposedly grew by 0.1% in August. But David Craig isn't buying it. Once you take out all the extra spending on illegal immigrants and benefits the actual productive economy is already deeply in recession.
The post GDP Growth? No, We’re Already in a Recession appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Trump?s Sanctions Put Him on ?Warpath? with Russia, Says Medvedev Thu Oct 23, 2025 11:10 | Will Jones
Donald Trump has put the US on the "warpath" with Moscow with his decision to impose sanctions and?cancel a peace summit, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has said.
The post Trump’s Sanctions Put Him on “Warpath” with Russia, Says Medvedev appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Covid Inquiry is Determined to Repeat School Closures Thu Oct 23, 2025 09:00 | Molly Kingsley
Covid school closures, everyone now agrees, were an unmitigated disaster. Everyone, it seems, except the Covid Inquiry, which this week proved it is determined to repeat them, says Molly Kingsley.
The post The Covid Inquiry is Determined to Repeat School Closures appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link We?ve Heard Ed Miliband?s ?Green Jobs? Promise Before Thu Oct 23, 2025 07:00 | Ben Pile
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The post We’ve Heard Ed Miliband’s ‘Green Jobs’ Promise Before appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Thu Oct 23, 2025 01:05 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

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offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

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Water Charges and TTIP!

category international | bin tax / household tax / water tax | other press author Sunday November 16, 2014 01:15author by T Report this post to the editors

This is a repost of an important article on the Irish Left Review website and goes into detail on the connection between the Water Charges and the upcoming Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) which is currently being concluded in secret by the EU and US.

*** The water charges can and must be defeated by resistance and non-payment but water, as a human right, must also be secured as a publicly owned and controlled resource universally available. Remember, we had to fight water charges in the 1980’s and again in the 1990’s so let’s make this win a permanent one.
ttip_irishwater.jpg

The origin of the present water charges lies in the EUs Water Framework Directive (2000) which provided for full cost recovery for water use and whose Article 9 states:

‘Member States shall take account of the principle of recovery of the costs of water services …’


It also required Member States to have in place water-pricing policies by 2010. The Directive was transposed into Irish Law in 2003.

So, the origins of these punitive charges, this time around, are the Water Framework Directive which seeks to commodify water provision through the establishment of the principle of recovery of the costs of water services. The EU took advantage of the ‘bailout’ to make it a condition of the ‘loans’. This will open the way for the sale of Irish Water either in whole or in part, ostensibly to complete the single market or to promote competition ‘in the interests of the consumer’. This is just one reason why there is such resistance to a constitutional referendum to permanently retain Irish Water in public ownership – the other is TTIP.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), is currently being concluded in secret by the EU and US. Both sides have made clear their intention to use TTIP to get access to what is described as “public monopolies;” that is, public utilities including water. These services would then be vulnerable to greater outsourcing and private tendering for service delivery and eventually, to privatisation.

TTIP would open up public procurement contracts to the private sector, meaning that social, environmental or “public good” goals in public procurement would be removed. A private monopoly can fix its price at an unaffordable level, as Bechtel did in Bolivia, leading to a popular uprising; the termination of the contract and replacement of the government.

It would also make the nationalisation (or renationalisation) of services or resources virtually impossible, as incredibly, corporations would be able to sue for loss of future and expected profits. This is facilitated by the inclusion of an (ISDS) Investor – State Dispute Settlement clause in TTIP.

The TTIP agreement increases the pressure for the privatisation of ‘services of general interest’, such as water services. Foreign suppliers of services of general interest should not be entitled to claim “forgone profits” through ISDS. This provision, in effect would further legalise neo-liberalism as the economic and social framework in Ireland and the EU.

But even if ISDS is removed from TTIP, the main goal remains; to remove regulatory ‘barriers’ which restrict the potential profits to be made by transnational corporations on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet these ‘barriers’ are in reality some of our most prized social standards and environmental regulations, such as labour rights, food safety rules, regulations on the use of toxic chemicals and digital privacy laws. The stakes could not be higher.

Public water provision is only one of the services under threat from TTIP. Both water charges and TTIP must be defeated!

Related Link: http://www.irishleftreview.org/2014/11/10/water-charges-ttip/
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