Government suffers major water damage

You can only begin to imagine the panic that belatedly gripped the Government parties as the full ramifications of water charges finally hit home over the weekend.

Depending on which media outlet you believed, the numbers protesting in Dublin city centre were somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000; a display of public unity not seen on the streets in decades. Whatever the correct figure, the photographs and television images laid bare the full extent of anger at the Government's imposition of water charges on a nation reeling from seven years of brutal austerity.

•The marchers' message to our politicians was clear. PHOTO: Conor Ó Mearáin

How many of those who marched will vote for Labour or Fine Gael in the next general election? You can be certain that this question concentrated minds in Government Buildings in the panicked pre-budget scramble to offer some concession on water charges. As predicted, there was some respite in the form of tax relief and an additional €100 for those receiving the household benefits package but this is unlikely to be enough to quell growing public discontentment since the establishment of Irish Water.

While tens of thousands of people chanted anti-Government slogans in the city, the political realities were being spelled out for the main parties in Dublin South West and Roscommon South-Leitrim. The election of two new TDs on the basis of their opposition to water charges has sent serious warning shots across the bows of Labour and Fine Gael. Perhaps not quite holed beneath the waterline just yet, but the Government is now very much on the back foot on this issue and the anti-austerity movement will rightly feel that they have the wind in their sails.

Despite all the claptrap about water charges being a measure to encourage conservation, in reality it is simply a revenue raising exercise, with no pricing guarantees beyond 2016. The State itself is the biggest waster of water, not the domestic or commercial user (I am loath to use the word 'customer'), with its antiquated network of leaky pipes.

We are being asked to fund a major capital expenditure programme that will take years or even decades to bear fruit. Once water meters are installed and our new utility bills start plopping through the letterboxes, there will be no turning back. As householders, it's hard not to feel that we are once again being lulled into a false sense of security by having our initial bills based on an assessed charge. It was the same when the €100 Household Charge was introduced, which was simply a precursor to the more punitive Local Property Tax.

Most of us suspect that the only way water bills are heading is up. Just look at what we are now forced to cough up for our refuse collection - a former local authority service that was once funded from general taxation.

The Government continues to insist that water charges are necessary. However, the thousands who marched through the city this month will no doubt be emboldened by the partial climbdown on the issue by Michael Noonan in Budget '15. The question is: how much more water damage can the Coalition withstand?