Crowe Welcomes Water Protester Releases
Dublin South West representative Seán Crowe TD has welcomed the release of jailed water protesters on a technicality and said that their release comes at a time when more demands are being made by water meter companies for additional costs.
Deputy Seán Crowe said;
“I warmly welcome the release from jail of a number of water and meter protesters. The arrest of these protesters was clearly a deliberate act against the anti-water charges movement and was designed to frighten support away from the campaign. The protesters may have been released on a technicality but the important thing is that they have been released.
“News of their release comes in the wake of yet more revelations of bad practice, bad management and overspending by Irish Water. Companies installing water meters are now looking for extra money due to wrongly sized boxes, water pipes being too close to the surface and other inconsistencies between the job specifications and the actual ground conditions encountered.
“Since its establishment the entire Irish Water affair has been one fiasco after another. The water metering programme needs to be brought to an end and halted as soon as possible. It is an absolute scandal and unbelievable that the €539 million outlay for the same unnecessary water meters now might actually not be enough. It is an even bigger scandal that those who end up punished are those engaged in protesting against this complete waste of Irish tax payers’ money.
“Sinn Fein fully supports people’s right to protest peacefully against water charges. The next opportunity to do so will be at the Right2Water demonstration taking place on Saturday March 21st in Dublin at 2pm.
“We want to see huge numbers turning out for that protest that will be family friendly, inclusive and peaceful
“The right to water is a human right and should remain so.”