No to Water & Property Taxes

Attempts to impose water and property taxes on householders will be met with outright opposition in every corner of the state.

No matter whose figures you believe, almost one million households have refused to register for the household tax. If such large numbers of people are willing to put themselves in conflict with the government over a €100 household tax, it’s clear that the government have no hope of imposing property and water taxes which will result in each household having to pay a minimum of €1,000 per year.

Figures released just this week by the Irish League of Credit Unions showed that nearly half of all households have less than €100 left to spend at the end of each month having paid their bills. In addition the “Health Behaviour in School-aged Children” survey stated that one in five Irish children reported going to bed hungry during 2010. Austerity and the imposition of international finance’s gambling debts on the shoulders of ordinary people are having a real impact on people’s living standards. Yet the government seem to think that they will be able to squeeze even more money out of people. They are wrong. People are not going to pay these taxes.

Attempts to portray the water tax as being about water conservation are total nonsense. The creation of the Irish Water company is about paving the way towards privatisation of our water services. It is a demand of the troika and a long sought-after wish of big business. If the tax is successfully imposed, the next step will be to sell off the service, just as has happened with the bin collection service. The experience of the privatisation of Eircom whereby the extraction of profit became more important than the development of services and has ultimately resulted in the company going into examinership show the inevitable result of the policy of privatisation.

The experiences of Britain where water services have been privatised should also serve as a warning. Profits for shareholders have become much more important than investment in water services. Charges increase year on year and in many areas people regularly face water shortages.

The introduction of water meters will not solve the problem of water wastage. Most water wastage is as a result of leaks in a pipe system that needs huge investment to make it fit for purpose. Somewhere between 40 and 50 percent of all water currently leaks from the faulty pipe system. The fitting of water meters in people’s homes will do nothing to solve this problem. If water conservation was truly the objective it would make much more sense both economically and socially to invest in fixing these leaky pipes – creating much needed employment.

Water is of course a finite resource. However there is no evidence from international comparisons that the fitting of meters or the imposition of charges has much impact on usage levels. The fixing of the leaks combined with a major public education programme would have a much greater effect.

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