Going into liquidation
Let's say for the sake of argument that my local shop sends me a box of groceries every week.
That box contains all my needs – meat, vegetables, fruit, bread and assorted tins and jars.
They charge me €100 for the box.
They have been doing that for years and I haven't had a major cause for argument.
Now they announce that they are going to charge me €50 separately for the meat, but the remaining box of groceries will remain at €100.
Now I have cause for complaint. They consider this is fair as meat is an expensive item. I don't argue with that, but I maintain that if they are charging me separately for meat then the cost of the rest of the box should drop by the same amount as it no longer contains meat. Fair enough?
Let's enter the real world.
I have been paying taxes all my life. Those taxes cover a multitude, a minute portion of which are essential services such as street lighting, road repairs and providing me with water. Now they want to charge me separately for water, but they are not reducing my taxes which, as I argue above, no longer have to cover my water supply.
I consider that to be a rip-off. In fact I consider it to be extortion with menaces.
They say my cost will be €278 per year. How do I know they will not [“unavoidably”] increase that to €1278 next year?
How do I know that they will not sell out to some Chinese conglomerate who will charge me €2278 per year?
And apart from any potential increases, why the fuck should I pay €278 a year for water that is fit only for flushing the jax and washing dishes?
They can fuck off.
The Irish Mafia is alive and kicking the people of Ireland. Could this be the event that starts the revolution?
"Could this be the event that starts the revolution?" I doubt it. It would take a national tragedy to get the Irish worked up. Now maybe if we cancelled a Garth Brooks concert or two?
Which is exactly what they did with prescripton charges, it started out at €0.50 per item, then it went up to €1.50 and now it is at €2.50 per item. Get it in and once people are used to forking out their cash, jack it up. Tossers.
One of my big fears is that after a few years the company will be sold off to some anonymous conglomerate who will keep upping the cost to up their profits.
You could end up paying a lot more than €278 see this http://www.moneyguideireland.com/figures-for-water-charges-released.html
Welcome Joe! I always take these figures with a pinch of salt. The initial figures are always followed by an "adjustment" on some pretext or other. They once abolished car tax here and replaced it with a "road fund licence" costing £10 per annum. That "licence" now runs int the hundreds or even thousands for larger vehicles. Draw your own conclusions…..
2.50 Euros per prescription item is cheap compared with English prices. It's just over £8 per item here. (Don't know the exact figure as I get the crumblies exemption.)
Can't comment either. I'm stuck with a monthly bill of around €144 for prescriptions. That hikes every year too.
Frank
Most working people in Ireland pay full whack for medication. A medical card can keep it lower than £150 but over-all were far better off than in Ireland. Compared to Wales however it's a different matter!
I thought it was about £7.80, but on checking I find that in March they jacked it up from £7.85 to £8.05 per item. Bastards…
You can be guaranteed that this is purely a costly money gathering program. If the government were interested in improving the water quality and also the cost to the taxpayer they could have implemented a better strategy. I work at finding leaks and can pretty much guess that if they invested in finding and repairing leaks this would reduce the production costs dramatically. Over the last 2 years close to zero money has been spent on this and in the meantime the leaks are getting bigger and more numerous.
Welcome Ray! Of course it's a money gathering scheme. As I pointed out, it's not shifting the burden but rather adding to it. The EU couldn't give a damn about our water supply, but they do care how much cash they can skim off us. They love this method as it guarantees a cashflow – pay up or lose your water – and the cost can be raised any time they wish.