Sir, – According to Eoin Ó Broin TD of Sinn Féin, paying for water is “an unfair and unjust tax”, “the majority of people voted to scrap water charges” and “more than 90 TDs were elected on a mandate to scrap water charges” (“Sinn Féin to force FF and FG to vote together over Irish Water”, May 20th).
Fianna Fáil campaigned only for “suspension” for a period. That it has achieved. It has no mandate to “scrap” the charges.
Are the charges unpopular? In spite of intense campaigns to persuade people to withhold payment, the majority of us still pay. I have just received the fourth quarter bill for water supply and waste disposal. I shall be very happy to pay it.
The reason we pay is obvious. In my household of two adult people, the total bill for the year came to just under €118 for more than 33,000 litres. They would have us pay very much more by another tax which would have no relation to how much water we use, if any at all. That is supposed to be fair or just?
Leo Varadkar thought it was good value at €3 a week, the price of a Sunday newspaper. He could have used a more realistic figure. With the water conservation grant coming back, I have paid out barely 35 cents a week for clean water and waste disposal.
That is about half the price of a litre bottle of water from the shops! Even without the grant, it would cost me less than your newspaper on Saturdays! Is this “an unjust tax”?
These socialists want to be able to use or waste as much water as they like, so long as someone else pays for it. That is why they attempted to block the installation of meters. How can they now claim any moral right to make new laws and expect honest people to obey them?
I am pleased to have a meter for my home. That encourages me to be sensible about conservation. It means I can pay just for what I use, and not one cent more for wasters and freeloaders.
Water charges are not taxes. Pure water is a commodity, the same as electricity or fuel. It costs money to get to the taps and to dispose of as waste. It should be metered just like electricity or gas. If you choose not to pay for those commodities without due cause, you get cut off. Blaring out “power to the people” through 120 decibels of amplifiers may pump up the spirits of the mob, but it won’t deliver a litre to Leitrim, maintain the mains of Maynooth, or sanitise the sewers of Santry and Swords.
So, if Micheál Martin wants to be taoiseach some day, now is the time for him to show some leadership. Speak up for common sense. – Yours, etc,
D LEONARD,
Blackrock, Co Dublin.