We all know that the creation of Irish Water had nothing to do with conservation or people paying for water (again) or even the extraction of more tax from the people.
The creation of Irish Water was a condition imposed by the Troika as part of austerity measures. The Troika (EU/IMF/ECB) couldn't give a fiddlers fuck HOW the Irish government were to pay back bondholders, but their controllers - the major EU corporate sector - had a very clear vision of how to create something that would become a source of rvenue for themselves.
Irish Water was set up so that the supply of water to the Irish people would be taken out of centralised government funding and local council administration and put in the hands of a single entity with powers to bill Irish 'customers' directly.
With the Irish tax payer already contributing € 1.2 billion a year in central taxation to the State for the provision of this key service, the government under instruction from the Troika and at the behest of a major corporation who I believe to be VEOLIA have created a company, using tax payer's money, which will have a GUARANTEED starting revenue of € 600 million.
This means that Irish taxpayers have been handed a 50% increase in the price of their water.
Subsequent opposition necessitated the creation of "allowances" ... making the people believe that they would get a certain amount of 'free water'.
I believe that the whole issue of PPS numbers required by Irish Water was that they could CLAIM BACK the allowances given to households and children FROM THE GOVERNMENT (i.e. from central taxation ... from the € 1.2 billion that we're already paying).
On Six One News last night (nov 19th) the Head of Ervia, Irish Water's parent company and George Lee (failed Fine Gael politician) stated quite clearly that the new pricing proposal WOULDN'T AFFECT THE OVERALL REVENUE TO IRISH WATER. This is because the reduction in direct revenue from the 'customer', approx € 20 million, will be made up by the Government. So they haven't "given" you ANY reduction ... they're just taking what you would have paid Irish Water under the previous pricing structure from the money you are STILL paying through VAT, Motor Tax and other central taxation.
It doesn't matter ti Irish Water WHERE they get their € 600 million from... they don't care ... their revenue is guaranteed. Even with the charges 'capped' they will still get € 600 million.
The primary objective the government had when they set out was the creation of a company.
In January 2015 the first bills will be sent out. Once ONE PERSON pays a water bill, there will be in existence a semi-state company providing a utility service, billing end-users directly and generating revenue. From this point on there will be a de-facto MARKET for water and for a period of time they will be a monopoly supplier of water to Irish 'customers'.
Under EU LAW ... which supercedes all national legislation ... the Government of the day will be obliged to open up the market to other providers. At this point Irish Water will be open for bids...
The call for the inclusion of a clause in the Constitution for the protection of water (and any other natural resources) to be the property of the Irish people, held in trust by the State, I believe will not guarantee the future nationalisation of our water. Because since the Lisbon Treaty was passed (and even before that) our sovereignty has been usurped by the EU machine.
As I understand it, EU legislation trumps ALL national legislation, INCLUDING THE CONSTITUTION!
The inclusion of any amendment to our Constitution will be meaningless as long as we are a part of the EU. The protection or nationalisation of our natural resources in the Constitution (and there is already precedent in international Constitutional Law for this) would be absolutely fine if Ireland was a sovereign nation standing on its own. But since Lisbon (and maybe since 1972) that has no longer been the case.
The government is indifferent to the workings of Irish Water - how much it charges / how usage is measured / how conservation is addressed / how much money it can raise on the money markets using a so-called off-balance-sheet entity etc. The ONLY thing the government is concerned about ... and that is borne out by their own admissions ... is that IRISH WATER (Ltd) EXISTS and that it is HERE TO STAY. Because THAT is the only thing that the Troika, and VEOLIA, are concerned about : that a market has been established; that a corporate entity has been created to administer it; and that customers are being billed directly for the product/service.
When you look at it like this the government have already achieved what they wanted... what they were told to do.
Once the market is open, government subvention to Irish Water in the form of allowances, funding and everything else will come to an end, and whichever private company becomes the supplier of water will not be interested in granting you free-water allowances so every litre will have to be paid for...their shareholders will only be interested in profits and dividends, not your claim to 'rights'.
As the average usage per person is universally accepted to be 54,750ltr per year, at the current price of €4.88 per 000 ltrs (excluding any price increase which the private company might deem appropriate) that means a bill of € 267 per person per year ... or € 1,069 for a household of four people.
Since this will be a service industry it is reasonable to expect that VAT at 13.5% will be charged on top of this just like electricity etc. bring the 4 person household bill to € 1,213.
Not only that but no private profit-focussed company is going to care one little bit about the leakages that occur in the system between the source and the meter outside your house... they're just concerned about the number of litres flowing past the meter. So there will be NO capital investment in the infrastructure from private sources and the State will be left with the cost of pre-meter repairs, upgrades and installations.
That is what faces us in the years to come.
This campaign cannot be stopped until Irish Water has been removed in its entirety because once they receive their first payment from an Irish 'customer' in January it's game over.
After that nothing less than Ireland's secession from Europe will result in Ireland's water becoming the property of the people.
We are not fighting for water ... we are actually fighting for our sovereignty.
#irishwater
previous posts:
The Money in Ireland's Water https://www.facebook.com/notes/paul-madden/the-money-in-irelands-water/10152631392837839
The PPS Issue https://www.facebook.com/notes/paul-madden/why-irish-water-need-your-pps-number/10152632034407839
Status:
Ireland has a land area of 84,421 km2
Our annual rainfall is an average 1000mm
That's a total of 84 TRILLION ltrs of fresh water
@ € 4.88 /000 ltr that's an asset worth € 411 billion EVERY YEAR that doesn't have to be mined, drilled, manufactured, grown or synthesised.
THAT'S why Ireland's natural water resource is on the radar of a company like VEOLIA
We use 2% of it ... with investment in water collection, e.g mega-reservoirs across the country, VEOLIA (a company with annual revenue of € 30bn ... the same as the Irish govt takes in taxation!!), could potentially access 5% or more. All they need are the exclusive rights to it ...
Are we really prepared to do the same thing with our water that we did with our oil?
Between the OIL that exists off-shore and the WATER that falls on the land, we have easily enough asset wealth to give Europe a big FUCK YOU (since they've happily left us to pay 42% of THEIR debt) and take back our sovereignty, independence and financial freedom
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