LIMERICK’s Anti Austerity Alliance local election candidates have launched a campaign against the imposition of water charges.
The party, which recently opened new offices at Lock Quay, recently held a series of public meetings in locations across the city, in a first step towards organising a community-based campaign against what they deem as the “water charges rip-off”.
According to AAA candidate for Limerick East, Paul Keller, hundreds of people in the city signed a pledge to only vote for candidates who will fight water charges.
Speaking at a public meeting in Castletroy, local AAA candidate Madelyn Portley commented, “We have beaten water charges before and we can beat them again.”
“In the late 1980’s people such as AAA member Joe Harrington led a mass campaign of non payment which beat the water rates then. These meetings are the first step towards organising a community-based campaign along the same lines to beat them again,” she said.
Meanwhile, AAA candidate for Limerick North, Cian Prendiville, told those who attended a meeting in Corbally, that water charges expose all the Government’s “propaganda” about recovery.
“They say there’s recovery, yet they are planning more austerity taxes? They say we need ‘discipline in public finances’ but then throw millions in bonuses to Irish Water bosses and consultants. They claim to want to conserve water, but the state is the biggest waster of water, with 41 per cent of water leaking from the network. They should spend the money fixing the leaks, not imposing another bill which people simply do not have the money to pay,” Mr Prendiville concluded.
