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Showing posts with label water charges. Show all posts
Showing posts with label water charges. Show all posts
Enda Craig lambasts the Irish Left over water charges. 

The hypocrisy and cowardice of the so called ' Left ' and the Irish electorate in not acknowledging and challenging the sell-out and betrayal of PBP, SF, RISE, Ind 4 Change and the Soc Democcrats in supporting FG/FF/LAB and the Greens on the proposal for Charges For Excessive Use on our water is beyond measurement.

On the 6th of April 2017. in front of RTE cameras on the Dail plinth , the R2W TD's announced that they had 'Collective Agreement' with All political parties right across the board to the contents of the report.

This report ( Draft Final Report of the Recommendations of the Joint Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services ) contains the proposal For Charges For Excessive Use as did the Final Report also.

The evidence is there and indisputable.

Ask any of the ' Left ' commentators to explain this and they immediately get angry ... tell you they are against Excessive Charges and vehemently blame FG and FF but will not entertain or accept the fact that the above list of political parties (which they continue to support) are Equally guilty.

Now they are calling for the same gathering of reprobates to get into Government.

Those that we hailed as heroes threw us under the bus and are now looking for and getting huge electoral support without any explanation of their previous actions.

This is a damning sell-out and betrayal of gigantic proportions on our watch and has been deliberately ignored.

It will affect every family in the land.

We are not brave enough or straight enough to face up to the embarrassment and the shame that those that we put our trust and faith in (And Still Do) sold us out …  Lost Country … Lost People. 

 ⏭ Enda Craig is Donegal community activist.

An Inconvenient Truth

Enda Craig feels there is now:

Undeniable Proof - The Irish Anti Water Charges Movement Was Sold Out, Betrayed By R2w Unions And TDs

There is undeniable proof that the Irish people were sold out and betrayed by R2W Unions and TDs incl. Sinn Féin, PBP, Solidarity, Ind4Change, Social Democrats on the Water Charges issue.

The RTE video of the 6th of April 2017 on the Dáil media plinth shows R2W TDs one after the other giving victory speeches. Deputy Eoin O'Broin states that indeed there is “Collective Agreement” with the contents of the Oireachtas Committee on Water Charges report and they will now meet with the rest of the Committee in the Dail in the afternoon to formally adopt it.

It transpired at that meeting Simon Coveney announced he had written to the chairman of the committee the previous night stating that Fine Gael would not accept the draft report because an agreement on metering that they made with Fianna Fáil, one week previously, did not appear in the report.

It is important to point out that the issue involved only ‘Metering’ and not ‘Charges For Excessive Use’ or any other clause including acceptance of Irish Water, agreed by all Committee members as stated in the draft report. It was this single issue on metering that R2W would eventually use to distance itself from the eventual water legislation.

It is logical to assume that accepting the principle of ‘Excessive Use Charge’ that that would entail metering the amount of water used. Note that the ‘Excessive Use Charge’ principle was introduced as early as 2015 in Brussels by rapporteur Lynn Boylan supported by R2W, see this article Here.



See video - R2W Dáil plinth 6th April 2017

The Oireachtas Committee spent the next week addressing the metering changes and eventually the wording was changed to reflect the FG/FF agreement as mentioned by Simon Coveney in his letter.

The Committee’s Final Report on Domestic Water Charges was passed on 11th of April 2017 by a majority of 13 to 7. 5 R2W TD'S, 1 Green Party Senator and 1 Labour Party Senator voted against.

The only difference in the Draft Confidential Report that the R2W agreed with and Final Report related to the change in wording on metering only. It did not include any rejection of ‘Charges For Excessive Use’ by the R2W TD's. It is critically important to understand that the part in the report that was modified had to do with a disagreement on metering details between FG and FF. and not the any agreed charging regime.

It seems none of the committee members had any problem with the ‘Charges For Excessive Use’ as written in the Draft Report on the 6th of April and agreed to again in the final report on the 11th of April. The reason R2W TD's voted against the final report had to do with the modified details on metering alone.

This final Oireachtas Committee’s Report on Domestic Water Charges, including the principle of charging for excessive use, became the official position of the Government and this eventually became part of the Water Services Act 2017 that passed into legislation in Sept 2017.

R2W TDs, of course objected to the Bill. However, in my view, this was in truth a 'face saving ' exercise. By agreeing to ' Charges For Excessive Use ' the details on metering was a side show allowing them to jump up and down in false protest. The harm was already done and they had a major part in it.

The Water Services Act was now included in the new River Basin Management Plan as the Irish Govt's official position on the new Domestic Water Charges for Ireland and this was forwarded to Brussels for approval.

In a nutshell, R2W and affiliated TD's, by agreeing to commodify domestic water usage through the ‘Charges for Excessive Use’ principle, have facilitated the Government in their long term plan to activate Articles 102-106 of the Lisbon Treaty ( signed up to in 2009 ) that insists that all member states must open up to competition any goods/ services that are available on the open market at unit price ( e.g cost per litre of water ). This will align Ireland with the EU Single Market opening up domestic water charging to competition laws. This will in turn do away with our precious 9.4 Domestic Water Exemption.

R2W Unions and the R2W TD's should never have agreed to this. They should have ignored completely the Government signing up to the ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ and they should have fought tooth and nail to retain the 9.4 Exemption.

Instead they handed the Government water charges and privatisation on a plate. Perhaps this is the price you pay as advocates of the EU and the Single Market.

R2W have attempted to explain their shameful decision when they published the following statement:

Much criticism has been made of a number of TD’s who support Right2Water declaring a victory on the plinth of the Dail on 5th April 2017. At that particular time, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Water had agreed a draft report stating that charges were to be abolished, mandatory metering would end and the referendum to enshrine public ownership of our water supply would take place. Had that Report been adopted, it would indeed have been a massive victory for everyone who had campaigned against water charges. Instead, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael conspired to change the report outside of committee hearings, a scandal in itself, undermining the democratic processes of the Oireachtas, and not for the first time. In the same week, Simon Coveney, the Minister responsible for water, issued threats to the committee when he wrote to the Chair.

The fact of the matter is FF and FG conspired to change the report on metering but nothing to do with the core part of the report which included the Charges For Excessive Use and acceptance of Irish Water. The statement was an example of a premeditated manipulation of the truth by R2W. People should not allow them or affiliated TD's to continue to treat them as fools. If we are to progress and counter the status quo EU austerity measures then any opposition must embrace honesty, democracy and a little bit of humility. Without this the often cacophony of ‘Unity’ is false.

I have shown beyond doubt that the R2W TD's sold out the people and the Irish Water Charges Movement by agreeing the ’ Excessive Use Charge’ principle. The metering issue between FG/FF was and is still being used as a smokescreen to hide a shameful truth. R2W conspired behind the backs of the movement by not being upfront and honest and were complicit for whatever reason in not only undermining our 3 core principles 1. No Water Charges 2. No Metering and 3. No Irish Water company.

In my view they quite rightly denigrated Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for their political shenanigans but it is shameful that they deny their own culpability.

⏩ Keep up with Enda Craig @ Buncrana Together

Undeniable Proof

Joe Dalton believes the response to the Cape Town water crisis can be an inspiration to the World (and especially to Ireland). 

Cape Town Water Crisis – An Inspirational Response

James Quigley is concerned about the complacency that has beset Irish citizens in relation to water charges. 



The political class know exactly what it’s about. The majority of Irish citizens haven’t a clue. The result could be that total control over our water will be handed over to Brussels bureaucrats. It all hinges on a little subsection of a European Directive and the willingness of our government to use it. The question is who's going to champion the Irish cause?



Left: Phil Hogan (FG) now a EU Commissioner was the minister responsible for trying to bulldoze Water Charges through. Right: That is the question.



The subsection is 9.4 of the Water Framework Directive 2000 (WFD). This simply says member states shall not be in breach of the directive if they decide not to apply full provisions for a given water-use and they shall report the reasons in their River Basin Management Plans (RBMP).

This might not sound much but in reality it is massive. It allows member states to regulate it’s water according to established practices, as long as it does not ″compromise the purposes and the achievement of the objectives of the Directive″. Brussels can not remove this clause but Ireland can give it away and everything is pointing in that direction.

Each member country of the EU is obliged by the WFD to implement three River Basin Management Plans for structuring it’s water resources. By the end of the third, supposedly 2027, all members states should be in full compliance. Ireland, however, is three years late with their second RBMP with it’s draft plan just put up on the DHPLG website. It is open for submissions until February 28th.

According to a department information officer Ireland’s finalised plan will be published on April 2018, the same day that it is sent to the EU Commission. It will then be subject to 3 month’s of negotiations where the Irish Government must supply all supporting documentation. However there is speculation that these negotiations could run on much longer and then they could be affected by further rumours of a total revamp of the Water Framework Directive itself later on this year.

Should the unsuspecting public be wary?

The following is an extract of the draft River Basin Management Plan, page 20. I look upon the explanation of the 2010 plan wrong. It is a subjective one that suits their purpose but it does not give the full facts. Bear in mind that because they say something, it does not necessarily means it is fact. You might see what they are trying to do when you read the second part of the paragraph i.e. our ‘established practice’ is gone, full steam ahead.

The first cycle of river basin management plans was completed in 2010. Ireland signaled an intention to introduce water charges and did not avail of the exemption outlined in article 9(4) of the WFD. In line with article 9(2) of the WFD, we will be required in the final river basin management plan for 2018- 2021 to set out our approach for the cost recovery of water services based on the economic analysis conducted according to Annex III, the contribution of the different water users to cost recovery and how this will contribute to achieving the environmental objectives of the Directive.

Coupled with some fine print in the revised Water Services Act 2017, particular Section 9, that allows for CER (energy regulator) to do some fine adjustments to figures on ‘threshold amounts’ of domestic water, the Irish Public should be worried. That’s a nice way of saying; whittling away at the water basic allowances.

What can we do?

I like the idea of people arming themselves with facts, questioning everything and not listening to what they are told by politicians and media alike, no matter who they are. I also like the idea of public empowerment, helping themselves, but unfortunately the issue of water charges has been given over to the political establishment where it is now subject to legal interpretations.

The public must demand that politicians and groups who made commitments against water charges, whether it is Right2Water or Fianna Fáil, put their money where their mouths are. They have to question the legality of this draft River Basin Management Plan. If their integrity can be respected they must not accept what seems to be happening to the principle of Ireland's ‘Established Practice’. They must stand up to EU interference and threats.

Fianna Fáil has a particular responsibility in this issue since they are in a position of power because of it’s ″Confidence and Supply″ arrangement with the present Government.

The public should contact all TDs, even attend their constituency clinics and demand that they do everything in their power to protect Ireland’s ‘Established Practice’, They must question the published draft RBMP and at least make sure that the 9.4 section of the Water Framework Directive is invoked.

Sources;

Irish Sleepwalking Down the Road To Full Water Charges

More From James Quigley on the water charges controversy.

Water Committee’s Many Unanswered Questions

In this article Enda Craig responds to Deputy Paul Murphy’s short but altogether, unsatisfactory explanation on Facebook yesterday that Solidarity did not support the removal of the 9.4 Exemption from the Oireachtas Water Committee’s report.

Platitudes And Bromide In Ireland's Political Scene

Writing in Buncrana Together last month Enda Craig & James Quigley address:

The Dilemma Of Paragraph 9.4, Our Democracy, The Oireachtas Water Committee And Right2Water Ireland

Dilemmas

James Quigley & Enda Craig writing in Buncrana Together put forward:

New Evidence bombshell - Sinn Féin spearheaded water charges in Europe while campaigning for abolition at home

Sinn Féin Spearheaded Water Charges In Europe

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