SUCCESSIVE governments have rued the day domestic rates were abolished in 1978, as promised in Fianna Fail's election manifesto the previous year.
That government promised to make up the shortfall to local authorities by annual rate support grants. But as the recession bit deep in the early 1980s, it found it could not afford these grants.
Local authorities were starved of income and became dependent on transfers from the central Exchequer. The results were potholes, street furniture in decay and overflowing bins. In 1983 charges were introduced on a discretionary basis for local services, including water, to provide modest local revenue.
But the charges proved inadequate and local authorities struggled to maintain their finances. From the outset the charges were seen as unfair and within a couple of years residents' and tenants' associations began campaigning for their abolition.
They claimed that income tax and indirect tax had increased when rates were abolished. Service charges on top of that were, they held, "double taxation".
The court actions started, and in 1986 Dublin and Dun Laoghaire authorities temporarily abolished water charges.
In 1991, as the financial crises facing many local authorities intensified, a motion calling for the abolition of the charges and giving local authorities a guaranteed contribution from central government was narrowly defeated in the Dail.
In 1994 the Federation of Dublin Anti-Water Charges Campaign was set up, following the introduction of water charges of £50 to £90-a year by the new Dublin county councils - Fingal, South Dublin and Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown. Dublin city was the only part of the State where water charges did not, and do not, exist.
The federation, chaired by Fingal councillor, Mr Joe Higgins, began boycotting water charges and resisting attempts to cut off supplies. By last year tensions were evident between the coalition partners on the issue.
As a compromise to Democratic Left, which opposed the charges, the Government curbed the arbitrary power of county managers to cut off domestic water supplies for non-payment. It also allowed tax relief on water charges paid on time.
Last December the first court orders for water disconnections were handed down in Balbriggan District Court
The issue was firmly back on the political agenda by April, when Mr Higgins came very close to defeating Fianna Fail in a Dublin West by-election.
The by-election had become almost a national referendum on the water service charges issue, with Mr Higgins standing on an anti-water charges platform.
The government was jolted by this result. Within months it published a study on funding and reform of local taxation and called for an all-party approach to the restructuring of local government.
Just last month, the federation was celebrating after a Swords District Court dismissed a prosecution by Fingal County Council for non-payment of water rates.
Mr Higgins and other water charges activists formed the Taxation Justice Alliance to field at least seven candidates in the general election.