Government seems to have a death wish on water charges

YOU’D imagine that if the Government had a plan to strong-arm anti-water charges protesters into submission, they’d at least have the cop-on to keep it under wraps until after the general election.

Obviously, the Fine Gael/Labour coalition has learned little from the mistakes made when Irish Water was first established. When former Environment Minister Phil Hogan suggested last year that those who refused to pay their water bills would have their pressure reduced to a trickle, it had an inflammatory effect on the public’s fragile tolerance for austerity.

People of all ages – some of whom had never taken part in a protest in their lives – found themselves chanting anti-Government slogans on the streets with tens of thousands of others. This was no longer just about money: the Government was now threatening to remove a basic human right and had succeeded in turning water charges into a highly-charged, emotive issue.

Changes announced in last year’s budget did little to quell public anger and the Government was eventually forced into a partial climb-down on some of the more contentious aspects of water charges. No more requirement for PPS numbers; a standard charge for most of this decade; an ironically named

‘water conservation grant’ of

?¬100 per household; and, most importantly, the threat to disconnect or reduce water supply to homes was dropped.

While the anti-water charges protests continued, Government TDs and ministers hoped the measures had taken some of the heat out of the controversy. On the other hand, anti-austerity parties believed the concessions represented the beginning of the end for Irish Water.

Figures suggest that two thirds of potential Irish Water

‘customers’ have now registered. Not exactly full compliance but certainly heading in the right direction. How many of them actually end up paying their bills will be another matter.

So while the softly, softly approach seemed to be working, last week we heard reports of proposed Government measures to bring defaulters to heel. There was talk of far-reaching legislation to introduce fast-tracked District Court sessions that would result in unpaid water bills being deducted from people’s wages or social welfare payments.

The good news, however, is that this wouldn’t be happening until some time in 2016. My question is this: with a general election now just one year away, why didn’t the Government keep its powder dry on such bully-boy proposals until after polling day?

I can only conclude that Fine Gael and Labour have a political death wish when it comes to water charges. Yet again, they have given the electorate a very large stick to beat them with.