Water revolution has started but Government too coy to act

For almost four years after the economy collapsed and the parole officers from the troika kept the country under surveillance and shackles, Ireland distinguished itself from other EU programme countries by not taking to the streets or organising mass protests or railing against the injustices of the State's half-way house existence.

Now almost a year after the IMF and Co have gone, and with the economy predicted to grow at an extraordinary rate of more than 4 per cent this year, this weekend saw the biggest public protest in Ireland since the tax marches of the early 1980s. To rework an old phrase, it was an Irish revolution to an Irish problem.

There will be some quibbling over numbers: was it 150,000 or was it closer to 100,000? That argument is moot. On a miserable rainy day people took to the streets in vast numbers to voice opposition to Irish Water. The message was clear and final.

Those who protested represented a range of interests and views. Some are opposed to the notion of water charges full stop and will not pay under any circumstances.

Others might be willing to pay but did not like the way the utility was set up; felt Irish Water functionaries were feathering their own nests; believed the State utility was being fattened up for privatisation. (Untrue, maintains the Government).

For all those who marched, however, there was a strong sense that after an endless series of tax increases and some cuts, this was one tax too many.

The day Irish Water first spelled trouble was the day its managing director John Tierney told Sean O'Rourke that it had paid some €80 million in consultancy fees during its establishment period.

Since then the utility’s teething problems have provided an almost weekly narrative, from its bonus pay arrangements to the slow rollout of water meters; from the potential cost of the bills to the need for customers to hand over PPS numbers.

It is evident that since the summer, the Government was aware this was turning into a major political problem. It came up with some strategies to try and bung the hole. The first was the €100 increase in the household package for older people agreed in the new Coalition priority list agreed between Enda Kenny and Joan Burton in July.

In the days leading up to the budget, the Government decided to include water charge tax credits to ease the burden on households. Quickly it was realised that some less well-off people would be excluded. And so a Plan C was announced some days after the budget to cater for that cohort.

The difficulty is that none of those interventions have, of themselves or collectively, managed to contain the problem. It’s evident too that the protests have widened beyond the catchment of the fringe parties to include core voters of all mainstream parties. The Government knew it was going to take a big hit this weekend and decided that it would be churlish for it to react immediately. Instead, it is going to work on its solution over a fortnight. It will likely include more concessions as well as a promise to maintain flat rate charges until after the next election. It will have to be a complete solution – politically it would be very damaging if the Government had to keep returning to the well.

Will the big announcement later this month work? The Government needs to be in a position to claim success for the new utility in the run-up to the next election.

The test will be the numbers who register with Irish Water over the next 18 months. It will be a gamble, but then all politics is a gamble. And from this standpoint, it looks like – as they say in poker – it will all come down to the river card.