Photos from Dublin Water Protests on Sat Jan 31st 2015

dublin | bin tax / household tax / water tax | photo-essay Sunday February 01, 2015 22:53 by 1 of Indymedia

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There was large turnout at Saturday's Water Charges protest which the government probably hoped would be smaller but what Saturday shows is that the campaign is very much still alive and there plans for a bigger national march in a few weeks time.

The protest was organised by each of the local campaigns and the plan was for each of the different groups to meet and converge in the centre of Dublin. Those from Dublin West met up at Hueston station marched down the quays to link up with people from Dublin at O'Connell bridge. Meanwhile people from North Dublin met at Connolly and also converged at O'Connell bridge.

Organisers estimated in the region of 30,000 turned out and there were numerous other water protests around the country, for example in Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Clare, Galway, Sligo, Letterkenny. As always it was a peaceful march and people which eventually split in two with many heading up O'Connell Street and another section marched to Leinster House. The people used the day to express their anger and disgust at the government. In other ways this (anger) is reflected in the number of people who haven't registered for the water charges. As always and just like the Bin Tax campaign, Irish Water are saying just over half have registered but we know there are approx 1.8 million households and whereas they say 1.2 million would be expected to register. That way, they can make their figures look higher percentage wise. Then the way the media, government and Irish Water spin it is that they make out that those who have registered are happy to pay when clearing this is NOT the case because may feel threatened and frightened into registering.

People should also be very clear that the reduced charges will NOT last after the next general election. This is exactly what happened with the bin charges where the waivers which were introduced to get less well-off onside were then completely betrayed when the waivers were abolished. People will also remember all the talk about the tax back on bin charges and this too was rapidly reduced and then eliminated altogether. So the promises of the government are simply empty and any verbal statement made by anyone in Irish Water, the corporate/right-wing media or government who say Irish Water will not be privatised simply are lying. The only way to secure this is if we can abolish the charges and or get a referendum to the effect that our natural resources -i.e. water should remain in public ownership.