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“...we, in the name of the Republic, declare the right of every citizen to an adequate share of the Nation's labour.”

~ Democratic Programme of the First Dáil 1919

Background to Water Charges in Ireland

It has been a long-term aim of those who promote global neo-liberal capitalism to make the most basic of life’s necessities – water – into a commodity, to be bought and sold.

As the politicians who administer power in Ireland embrace that same agenda it is becoming clear that the provision of a basic water service can no longer be taken for granted. Over the course of the last decade the possibility of stand-alone water charges, as a precursor to the privatisation of water services, has become very real.

This issue came to a head in occupied Ireland in 2007, when the British government met with large-scale opposition in its plans to charge households twice for their water supply, in preparation for the eventual privatisation of the service.

Householders in the Six Counties currently pay for their water services as a part of their overall rates.

Local communities, trade unions and other interested parties, including éirígí, refused to accept the lie that this double tax was needed to modernise the water service and organised accordingly.

Unnerved by the level of opposition it met on the issue, the Six County executive subsequently put a hold on the collection of water charges and instead established a review panel.

Although the panel noted that householders already pay for their water through their rates, the minister for regional development in the Six Counties has announced a distinct and separate water charge will be implemented from 2009.

Interestingly the review panel advised against the further privatisation of the water service and pointed out the financial savings to be gained from implementing an escape clause in a £90 million (€110 million) contract with the Crystal Alliance company.

The Six County executive has since refused to take the panel up on its escape clause advice and even conservative politician Dominic Bradley has expressed strong concern about the continued prospect of total privatisation.

“Let no one be in any doubt that the (British) Treasury still wants to sell off our Water Service and I can find no evidence that (the relevant ministers) intend to stop them. The fact is that the Water Service is already part privatised,” Bradley wrote in May 2008.

In the Twenty-Six Counties, the Dublin government has also taken the neo-liberal model to heart and begun the process of levelling water charges on public service providers.

As of 2010, all public services will be charged at the same rate as private businesses for water used. One of the hardest hit sectors as a result of this EU-inspired directive will be schools.

In the meantime, the institutions which are supposed to focus on educating the children of the nation will instead find their energies diverted into fund-raising initiatives to pay for water usage.

In many parts of the state, water charges for schools have already more than doubled between 2001 and 2008.

In the South Dublin County Council area for example, schools paid €81,000 (£64,000) for their water in 2001; by 2007, this figure had jumped to €164,000 (£130,000).

In a cynical stunt, the Dublin government has urged schools to use water more efficiently and introduce water-saving measures, knowing full well that the schools lack the funds necessary for many of those same measures.

Trade unions have reacted angrily to the situation and argued that effective delivery by public services will become nearly impossible once equivalence between private and public bodies is introduced.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation has stated: “Schools are surviving on the charity and fundraising efforts of local communities… Now they are being told to invest non-exist funding in expensive technology or risk massive water bills. It is a disgrace that watering the grass is cheaper than children washing hands.”

It is widely believed that the introduction of water charges to schools and other service providers is only the ‘thin edge of the wedge’ with domestic water charges to follow. Under such a programme of ‘creeping privatisation’ the introduction of domestic rates will be cynically promoted on ‘environmental’ grounds, with the charges initially being paid to local government.

Following any future successful introduction of water charges local government will soon be replaced by private corporations. A similar strategy of ‘creeping privatisation’ was deployed with the introduction of refuse charges in the Twenty-Six Counties.

If the water services in either part of Ireland are allowed to become money-spinners the wealthy will soon be watering the grass with the water that the children of the nation can’t afford to wash their hands with.