Photos from Dublin Water Protests on Sat Jan 31st 2015

dublin | bin tax / household tax / water tax | photo-essay

Sunday February 01, 2015 22:53

by 1 of Indymedia

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There was large turnout at Saturday's Water Charges protest which the government probably hoped would be smaller but what Saturday shows is that the campaign is very much still alive and there plans for a bigger national march in a few weeks time.

The protest was organised by each of the local campaigns and the plan was for each of the different groups to meet and converge in the centre of Dublin. Those from Dublin West met up at Hueston station marched down the quays to link up with people from Dublin at O'Connell bridge. Meanwhile people from North Dublin met at Connolly and also converged at O'Connell bridge.

Organisers estimated in the region of 30,000 turned out and there were numerous other water protests around the country, for example in Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Clare, Galway, Sligo, Letterkenny. As always it was a peaceful march and people which eventually split in two with many heading up O'Connell Street and another section marched to Leinster House. The people used the day to express their anger and disgust at the government. In other ways this (anger) is reflected in the number of people who haven't registered for the water charges. As always and just like the Bin Tax campaign, Irish Water are saying just over half have registered but we know there are approx 1.8 million households and whereas they say 1.2 million would be expected to register. That way, they can make their figures look higher percentage wise. Then the way the media, government and Irish Water spin it is that they make out that those who have registered are happy to pay when clearing this is NOT the case because may feel threatened and frightened into registering.

People should also be very clear that the reduced charges will NOT last after the next general election. This is exactly what happened with the bin charges where the waivers which were introduced to get less well-off onside were then completely betrayed when the waivers were abolished. People will also remember all the talk about the tax back on bin charges and this too was rapidly reduced and then eliminated altogether. So the promises of the government are simply empty and any verbal statement made by anyone in Irish Water, the corporate/right-wing media or government who say Irish Water will not be privatised simply are lying. The only way to secure this is if we can abolish the charges and or get a referendum to the effect that our natural resources -i.e. water should remain in public ownership.

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Comments (3 of 3)

single people threatened with larger bills and tenants pressured by landlords

by fred

Mon Feb 02, 2015 09:10

If you didn't register by today (feb 2nd) then you get a standard household bill for 2 adults.
This threatens single people with larger bills if they didn't register.
I'm sure this pushed a lot of folks over the line.

Also tenants under pressure from landlords will likely have to have registered

water charges..

by floating voter

Mon Feb 02, 2015 13:43

I hated seeing and hearing the propoganda on RTE radio and television it almost makes me want to not pay the license..What is going to happen realistically is that the charges for water will increase over time,the government still won't be able to turn a decent buck from it,(what with all the expensive consultants)and eventually sell it off to the international water barons..That looks like the end game,and as long as we keep docile and believe the propoganda that all the protesters are dissidents etc,and let RTE worry the sheep and discourage them from joining the protests and voting for the same imbeciles like FF,FG,LAB,SWP etc - we will get the same s**t...Clare Daly will be busy attacking planes at shannon airport and Mick Wallace the tax evader will be talking about rendition and points,like there is nothing else on the agenda,and of course our prized Enda Kenny will be kissing Angela Merkels feet,and sucking up to the other EU lackeys,some of which were done for fraud,i wonder how they got those cushy jobs??

Re: water charges..

by T

Mon Feb 02, 2015 14:54

It has always been the plan from the beginning to privatise our water and make us pay for it. The groundwork on this started many years ago. In fact the Lisbon Treaty was part of a big push to enable the privatisation of not just our water, but all other public services. The TTIP treaty now being pushed is Lisbon on steroids and far far worse.

As an indication of how things have been going on in the background, at the last Davos meeting which Enda Kenny was at, he was seated beside the head of the giant multi-national firm Nestlé who just happen to be one of the biggest owners of water supply firms in the world. And why does Enda or any other politican go to meetings like that, because they are essentially summoned there to have a chat with big capital and if they do what they are told and they do it gladly, then they will find that the path to power and the chance of staying in power is a lot easier. Should they fail to toe the line, it is political suicide and all sorts of bad press will follow and if necessary scandals, resignations and all sorts of disruption.

Really people need to look at the bigger picture and the longer term time period in which all these events occur. As an example, take the privatisation of waste. In Dublin alone there are about 650,000 households and while the charges may vary alot for people depending on the number of people per household, it has to be averaging around €500 per year. Well if you work out 500x650,000 that gives a turnover of €325 million a year and the figure could easily be higher. With that sort of money available, every dirty trick was going to be used and probably was used to make sure the entire service was privatised and whilst at the time all we heard was the "environmental angle" -i.e it was necessary to reduce waste -just like now although they have eased off abit because it is not working, where for absolutely months we heard this relentless nonesense that we had to charge for water because it was so precious and we had to conserve it and so on, this of course is just there to draw in the middle class and that block of people who are slightly environmentally conscious and use their guilt to win them over. But as with waste, you don't grow your business by encouraging less waste, you grow it by ensuring there is more waste and working closely with the packaging companies to ensure a steady supply of waste.

As to the political parties, I would imagine it will be a FF and Sinn Fein coalition next time around with SF as the majority party but given in the North they implement austerity, then it follows they will do the same here although if they are really clever they will manage to shift the blame on FF in the same way FG shifted the blame on Labour. In some way the political situation is sort of following what economist Morgan Kelly said about the outcome of the crisis which is that the main political parties in Ireland will come out totally discredited.

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Photos from Dublin Water Protests on Sat Jan 31st 2015

Comments (3 of 3)