Water protests ‘working’ as Government ‘backtracks’

Anti-water charge protests were ‘working’ as the Government was “backtracking” on the issue, one of the organisers of this weekend’s mass demonstrations has said.

Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance expects the turnout across the State tomorrow to “far exceed” 100,000.

Tomorrow’s demonstrations will take place in more than 70 locations throughout the Republic.

“I can absolutely confidently say we will far exceed the 100,000 turnout we saw three weeks ago. This is probably the most nationwide and largest protest we have seen in the history of the state.” Mr Barrett told RTE Radio. .

“People power and protests are working - the Government is backtracking at a rate of knots.,” he said.

It emerged today that among the measures being considered by Government is extending the tax credit announced in the budget to give all taxpayers €100 off their bill.

The tax credit announced in the budget was worth 20 per cent of a household’s annual water bill, to be capped at €100 a year.

However the measure under consideration is a €100 tax relief no matter what size the water bill.

The Economic Management Council met yesterday to discuss a number of issues around water charges, such as changes to the pricing structure, corporate governance, bonuses in the company, and PPS numbers.

While a number of issues were discussed at the two-hour meeting, no final measures for inclusion in the Coalition’s revised water charges plan were decided at yesterday’s meeting.

“They are having emergency meetings with the economic management council. They threw out some concessions in the budget in a desperate atempt to diffuse this enormous, unprecedented popular revolt,” he said today.

“People have been battered for the past six years with cuts, austerity and charges and many people simply cannot afford to pay these water charges”, Mr Barrett said.