Assembly Executive announces imposition of water charges

national | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Monday October 22, 2007 13:37 by a - wwpc wewontpay at btconnect dot com

We Won't Pay Campaign initial reaction

The We Won't Pay Campaign has reacted to today's announcement from Minister for Regional Development Conor Murphy claiming the Executive has decided to 'introduce water charges through the back door' by adding a specific charge for water in the rates on top of what every household already pays for water.

Spokesperson Pat Lawlor commented "The Independent Review Panel stated that on average we already pay £160 per year for water. While we believe the real figure may actually be considerably more, it is nonetheless accpeted that we do pay for water through the rates. What the Executive has decided is that each household should pay an additional payment of £145 from April 2009 on top of what we already pay. This is clearly double taxation, and no amount of spin from the Executive can hide that fact. '

"The parties in the Executive have now broken their electoral promises that people should not pay twice for water. People have been stabbed in the back. In light of this we feel we have no alternative but to continue our campaign in the communities and fight this additional charge. Householders are already finding it difficult to pay increasing rates. This decision to introduce water charges through the back door will push thousands of low-income households into poverty.'