WATER charge defaulters suffered a reverse yesterday when a judge held that South Dublin County Council had complied with statutory procedures in chasing up arrears.
The Dublin Anti-Water Charges Federation says it will oppose the decision with a street protest on March 8th and will also lobby all political parties on the matter.
The Department of the Environment has made clear that all arrears - totalling between £20 million and £25 million - will be pursued, despite the fact that water charges have been abolished since January 1st.
Spokesmen for a number of local authorities said they would be pursuing defaulters, as they had a "moral obligation" to the 90 per cent of people who had paid.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, announced the abolition of water charges last December".
In future, local authorities will be allowed to keep the revenue raised by motor tax rather than passing it on to the Exchequer. Water charges had been raising £55 million annually for local authorities.
In the Dublin Circuit Court yesterday Judge Diarmuid Sheridan told Mr John Doherty, counsel for South Dublin County Council, that his clients were entitled to recover a £140 debt for two years' water charges against a south city householder.
It was the first action in which a local authority had been challenged on procedures for the recovery of water charges and had, been strenuously fought by Mrs" Martin Giblin SC, who appeared with Mr Alastair Rutherdale, for the householder and the Dublin Anti-Water Charges Campaign.
The chairman of the campaign, Mr Joe Higgins, said the pursuit of arrears would now be made a political issue in Dublin in the run up to the general election.