Not fit for purpose
The Irish Water fiasco rumbles on.
The latest is that they have more or less decided to scrap water charges and pay for the service out of general taxation [as we have been doing for generations].
However…. They are worried that in doing so they will be breaking the law. Not our law but the fucking EU law.
If ever there was proof needed that Ireland has lost its sovereignty and independence, this is it. The people don’t want these charges. We revolted en masse with street marches and refusal to pay, and even brought down a government in the process. We already pay for our water and refuse to pay on the double for it. Yet somehow the EU trumps this democratic movement and can impose their law on us.
The latest crap is that they are talking about still applying an “excess usage” levy in the hopes that this will appease Brussels, by why the fuck should they be appeased? By definition, a sovereign state shouldn’t have to tug the forelock for anyone, let alone a bunch of unelected cunts in a foreign country.
Of all the countries in the continent of Europe, we must have the least need to conserve water. Our problem is that we have too much of the fucking stuff and have a major problem getting rid of it. Ask anyone in the Shannon Basin about a lack of water and you are likely to get shot.
Of course if they do decide to introduce an “excess levy” we all know what will happen…
They will decide that anyone who uses in excess of 1,000 litres wil be fined at 1 cent a litre. The plebs will accept this as it won’t affect them.
A year or so later, the gubmint will declare that 1,000 is a little high and it will be reduced to 500 litres and the fine raised to â¬1 a litre.
This is followed by a reduction in allowance to 10 litres a day and fine of â¬10 a litre. No one can complain as they happily accepted the first limit and will be told that consequent adjustments are just that – little adjustments.
Sooner or later they will decide that metering is too expensive, so they reduce the daily allowance to 0 and just charge us for all water like they always wanted.
I honestly don’t know which is worse – the EU or that shower of arse licking cunts in the Dáil.
They can fuck off, the whole lot of ’em.
UPDATE:
There is an online petition to scrap this whole insane concept.
The “excess charge” is about trying to legitimize the massive expenditure on meters. There is no evidence of widespread excessive use – private swimming pools are very rare, and garden sprinkler systems, are pointless in our climate.
Of course, if there is an excess charge, there should be an under use rebate, for which your meter would bring you a steady income
Fair point about the rebate. Maybe I could pipe the water from my roof into the system and charge them?
IREXIT, anyone?
Oh and this is an island with a fair share of precipitation – hence the emerald isle. 😉
Fair share? Dammit, we get everyone else’s share as well. What’s fair about that?
[N.B. It’s pissing down outside as I type this…]
I’ll have to take the bike across the Irish Sea again soon. The roads are just right for riding and the weather makes for cracking photography. All that low lying mist in the glens…
Drop me a line if you decide to take a trip. I’ll even let you buy me a pint or several.
Sorry Grandad you are not seeing all aspects here. If they get away with this (as they have here in the UK step by step) they then split the water bill, a charge to supply water and another charge for removing it, and not just the smelly bits that need treatment. They charge because they have responsibility to provide drains to remove excess rainwater collected by your building. In your climate they could make a killing.
They did that already. So far as I know the bills came in two parts – water supply and sewage. I never paid them so I can’t help there! My biggest fear was the prospect of the selling the whole enterprise to some foreign company who would ony care about profits and dividends while the customer could die of thirst.
Yes, it was called a ‘sewage’ charge here as well, and was quite small compared to the water supply charge – but it has now transmogrified into a ‘wastewater’ charge and escalated above the supply charge. Of course rainwater disposal is not metered so it’s based on the council tax band and you can’t economise and cut the bill with a meter, plus I understand they charge for the rainwater removal from business premises based on some formula of roof area.
That shower in Brussels should tread lightly anois,the working class and the pensioners (Iam one) have had enough of them telling us what to do.Take a look at the UK.Push us far enough and we could be next.
They are stuck in a cleft stick – to they appease the rest of us after Brexit and ease off on the bullying or do they increase their powers [United States of Europe] to tighten the grip on anyone who may consider leaving?
Granddad, did you get my last email (the ‘crap’ one)? I’m a little worried it might have gone straight to spam-where it probably belonged, mind you, or has it been eaten by gmail? You do tend to reply very promptly and i’ve had some emails go missing this last few weeks.
Most mails I get mention ‘crap’, usually with reference to my scribblings.
I got utterly pissed off with spam some time ago and it all automatically gets dumped now, so I can’t track back. You can be assured though, if I had seen it I wouldn’t have binned it. Unless I didn’t like it, of course.