TRALEE Meeting Against Water Charges

kerry | bin tax / household tax / water tax | event notice Monday April 23, 2012 12:51 by Tom Joad - Kerry Campaign Against Household & Water Taxes

The Kerry Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes presents a meeting against the introduction of water charges.

The speaker is Councillor Brid Smith, and the meeting takes place at the Grand Hotel, Tralee,Thursday 26th April at 8pm.

The national Campaign against Household & Water Charges has rejected Government claims that water charges are being introduced to promote conservation.

The group said "attempts by the Government to portray the water tax as being about water conservation is total nonsense", and that the introduction of water meters will not solve the problem of water wastage. It would be better to set about providing much needed employment by setting about fixing leaking pipes and upgrading the system.

The United Left Alliance has also pointed out recently that government assertions that water metering and water charges won’t lead to privatisation of water are either dishonest or based on ignorance of EU rules on competition and state aid.

Quoting the Lisbon treaty, TD Richard Boyd Barrett said that EU law requires that once a service is charged for it becomes legally subject to EU rules requiring the de-regulation and privatisation of such services and the removal of state subsidies that maybe considered to “distort” competition in the market.