by Alan Jacques
LIMERICK Anti Austerity Alliance (AAA) councillor Cian Prendiville has warned Environment Minister Alan Kelly that his bluster will be met with solid boycott and the sinking of Irish Water.
With the Government now considering introducing legislation to recoup unpaid water charges from people’s income and social welfare payments, Cllr Prendiville said this week that he was calling Minister Kelly’s bluff.
“On the eve of the bills being issued and following a massive protest against the water charges, the government is trying to create the impression that they can somehow deduct the water charges at source from wages or revenue. This is false bluster,” the City North representative insists.
“This is not like the property tax. Irish Water is a utility and has to meet the financing rules of Eurostat. All the government can threaten is to take people to court and seek to have the debt attached to earnings,” he said.
Cllr Prendiville believes the government are attempting to scare people with false threats into paying domestic water charges.
“We know they can’t take hundreds of thousands of people, organised in a mass non-payment campaign, through the courts.
“This threat from the government will see protests escalate and will make people more staunch in their commitment to the boycott. The trade union movement now needs to clearly come out in support of a boycott and in defence of working class people,” he declared.
The AAA councillor also believes that the key point to this debacle is that no court cases or deductions can take place until 2016 after the General Election.
“If there is mass non-payment during the General Election, the abolition of the water charges will be the key issue. In the face of 40 or 50 per cent of people, or four or five in 10 voters, boycotting the bill it will force any government to abolish the charge,” he concluded.
