Irish Water - A Tax On Life

The term "human rights" gets bandied about all too frequently by those looking to add some much needed dramatics to their writing, as if Herodotus has come back to life and has begun to regale us with stories based on truth but blown entirely out of proportion. Right now, however, we are faced with a challenge to our human rights in Ireland. There are many questions that come from the question of charging for water. Perhaps most pertinently is the question over the payment: how is it suddenly okay to charge for this basic, natural liquid when we have never been charged before? The fact of the matter is that we have been charged and have been paying for water all along. The only difference now being that the government is using the already heavily-taxed income to indulge in further bouts of cronyism. Yet again, it is the people who are consigned to paying for the wishes of those who lead us.

Of course there are those who have been brainwashed through generations of political ideal, handed down from generation to generation like precious jewellery, seemingly blinded by their political allegiance to the fact that this practice of charging for water, to bump up the profits for what is a private company, is ludicrous. Yet these toadying sycophants toe the party line once more to justify the decisions taken on our behalf, by those WE voted in. Worst of all, they facilitate the government successfully requesting that we grab our ankles again in the future. 

There are those who think austerity is necessary and there are those that think taking from the extremely poor and giving to already rich bankers is a negative thing. The problem with austerity is that it is when capitalism is at its ugliest. Companies sack the majority of their employees and take on cheaper alternatives and in austerity, the government gets ugly too. 

Here is a short list of things that go up during austerity:

- Tax

- Unemployment

- Emigration

- Homelessness

- Suicide

- Alcoholism

- Depression

- Drug use

- Crime

- Our reliance on banks

- The power of capitalism

Here is a short list of things that go down during austerity:

- Employment

- Population (youth especially)

- Pensions

- Social welfare

- Wages

- Employability

- General happiness

This system we have is to blame. Take this scenario for a mental exercise. You are presented with 10 cakes. You try a cake. It is disgusting. You try a second cake. It is also disgusting. Do you go back to the first cake again, realise it was as bad as the first time and try something else? Do you then return to the second cake? What if your parents told you that these were the only two cakes you can try? Would you not disagree? Would you not be curious as to what it would taste like to at least have a nibble of the other cakes? How sad would the world be if we had only two types of cake? This is the Irish system.

This is the system that gave a big two-fingered salute to every man, woman and child in this country and handed over billions of their money to those who didn't need it. In case you are still on the fence over these charges, here are some facts in the hope that you can exercise your democratic rights that are so advertised in other parts of the world that dare to hold alternative ideals.

- Your water is already paid for through central taxation. Domestic water rates were abolished in 1977 and Income Tax, PRSI and Motor Tax were increased to compensate, as well as the introduction of Household Charge and Property Tax. 

- 49% of clean water is lost through leaks and damaged pipes.
- Irish Water Ltd is a commercial for-profit company. You cannot be forced into a contract with a private company.
- Over 180 million euros of taxpayers money was used to set up Irish Water Ltd.
- One company, Sierra, which received the contract for installing the meters is owned by Ireland's richest person, tax exile Denis O'Brien
- Irish Water Ltd CANNOT deduct the charges from your wages or cut off your water supply
- Water is a universal Human Right, not a commodity.

There are more than two types of cake. Try a third. One of them will be nice.

None of this is opinion, this is all fact. Make up your own mind and act accordingly.

Never accept the world with which you are presented.