THE Federation of Dublin Anti Water Charges Campaign has called for an amnesty for people who have not paid the charges. People who have paid should be given tax credits, it says.
The call comes as more than 1,000 householders are due to be brought before the courts over the next three months for non payment, according to the federation. Its chairman, Councillor Joe Higgins, who stood as an anti water charges candidate in the Dublin West by election last year, said the people being brought to court were among the estimated 60,000 households which boycotted the water charges "as an unjust form of double taxation". They were primarily PAVE workers, whose average contribution in income tax last year was £4,400. Many of the households contributed up to £10,000 in PAVE alone.
If these people were pursued for water charges the issue would become a dominant one in the general election campaign, Mr Higgins warned. "We place responsibility for the prosecutions on the shoulders of the political parties who voted in water charges over the years."
Regarding the controversy over group water schemes, he said there should be equity and domestic water should be subsidised in all areas. Commercial and big farming interests, however, should not be included.