Any cuts are possible with this Government

The Government has little choice but to postpone the introduction of water charges. While Environment Minister Phil Hogan announced last Thursday that the charges would come in from January 1 next, there was no doubt but the backlash to this new tax coming on top of the hated property tax could be big enough to topple the Government.

The Government will say that the reason for the postponement is that water meters need to be installed in every home in the State before the charges can be imposed, That is a good and valid reason.

But the real reason is that such a charge could not possibly be supported by the Labour Party at this time and certainly not until after the local and European elections which are due to take place a little over a year from now. Support for Labour is at an all-time low at present, as demonstrated by all recent opinion polls along with the Meath East byelection result. But even that weak support would be further weakened if the Government were to go ahead with the dreaded water charges.

It would be completely unfair to impose a flat rate of water charges on householders. This is what would have to be done if the meters were not installed first.

The question now is will they be installed before the next general election? I am sure the Government would much prefer if this issue did not have to be faced this side of 2016. Water meters should have been installed years ago, but that is not the fault of the present Government alone.

The fact is that in this country we take our water for granted. It has always been free and when something is free we have not as much respect for it as we would have if we had to pay for it.

That is all going to change with the eventual introduction of charges. Hopefully, the charges will depend on the amount we use.

But there is one big problem.  A lot of people cannot afford to fork out any more money than they are already paying in various fees, levies and taxes to the Government.

Yet another tax might be the one to break the camel’s back. The truth is that water rates or whatever you want to call them should have been introduced – along with the meters – years ago when we might have been able to afford them.

Now they are being introduced at a time of deep depression when even teachers, nurses and gardai are complaining that they are unable to make ends meet. So if those comparably well-paid sectors are finding it hard to keep up with the cost of living, where does that leave the rest of us? The simple fact is that hundreds of thousands of us have been bled dry and we haven’t any more to give. If the Troika do not understand that then God help us all.

You cannot get blood from a stone. So while water charges might be the correct way to go about preserving water and ensuring an efficient supply of this vital natural resource, there is no way that an impoverished people can afford to pay such charges within the forseeable future. Neither this year, next year, nor the year after that.

We have seen that austerity is not working. That method has been tried throughout Europe over the last five years or so. Further austerity will also fail. So while I am in complete agreement that we should pay for the water we use, we should not be forced to do so until we can afford to.

The Troika should also remember that we are having huge problems paying the property tax. While a lot of us will find it difficult to pay the average €200 per house this year, how much more difficult will it be to pay double that – €400 – next year?

That’s without including the water charges. Not to mention the dreaded budget next November. The Government will be taking another €3 billion or so out of the economy then.

Where will they get it this time? Will they be taking it once more from those who have no more to give? You can bet your last euro that once again the most vulnerable will be hit. There is a feeling in some
Government circles that old-age pensioners, for example, have not been hit hard enough compared to others. Since the debacle over the loss of the automatic right to a medical card on reaching the age of 70, old-age pensioners have been looked on as untouchable.

That’s no longer the case because so many charges have been introduced by stealth on benefits “enjoyed” by the elderly. Can we now expect a direct attack on the old-age pension itself for the first time since the 1920s? With restrictions on free travel. Anything is possible.

But the budget is six or seven months’ away and we have enough to bother us in the meantime.
Meanwhile, it would be unfair to accuse Eamon Gilmore of turning his back on the troubles in the Labour Party by taking himself off to Istanbul. He is out there on a trade mission which we can only hope is a successful one.

We will not say of him as the late Frank Cluskey said of another prominent Labour politician who went abroad during another crisis in the Labour Party: When it comes to solving the problems in the Labour Party and solving the problems in the Middle East, Eamon takes the soft option by flying out to Turkey.

Eamon will have to sort out those Labour pains when he returns. He may be able to postpone the water charges but he can no longer postpone facing up to the crisis in his own party.