{"id":5399,"date":"2025-04-10T08:49:51","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T08:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/?p=5399"},"modified":"2025-04-10T08:49:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T08:49:52","slug":"government-still-committed-to-water-charges-through-the-back-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/government-still-committed-to-water-charges-through-the-back-door\/","title":{"rendered":"Government still committed to water charges through the back door"},"content":{"rendered":"Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Dublin South West Se\u00e1n Crowe has said that Sinn F\u00e9in are committed to ensuring that water charges are gone for good and that they took action that would have made sure that excessive use charges were not used as a pretext for their introduction. <br \/><br \/>To that end, Sinn F\u00e9in brought forward the Water Services (Repeal of Water Charges) Bill 2025 which would have removed the provision for excessive use charges from the Water Services Act 2017. <br \/><br \/>Speaking after the Government voted against the Sinn F\u00e9in legislation on Wednesday night, Teachta Crowe said:<br \/><br \/>\u201cThe anti-water charges movement was one of the largest opposition movements this State witnessed in modern times. Citizens from different backgrounds and of different ages came together, said \u2018No\u2019 to this unjust tax and took to the streets in their hundreds and thousands. <br \/><br \/>\u201cEven the 2016 Fianna F\u00e1il manifesto committed to abolishing Irish Water and ending water charges. The Government of the day was forced to concede defeat on that occasion and has been biding its time to get water charges in through the back door.<br \/><br \/>\u201cJust like on neutrality, Fianna F\u00e1il has become converts to Fine Gael policy when it comes to water charges. We are still losing one third of our treated water straight into the ground because the water infrastructure has not being brought up to scratch. <br \/><br \/>\u201cMore than ten years on, Irish Water is still wasting more water than any person ever could. To even discuss excessive use charges when Irish Water states on its website that 37% is lost through leakage is bonkers. <br \/><br \/>\u201cThe State is seeking to place a burden on householders once again when the State and Irish Water have failed. If the Government were serious about water conservation, it would fund Irish Water properly to accelerate its own leakage reduction programme.<br \/><br \/>\u201cSinn F\u00e9in wants leaking water pipes repaired, direct investment in infrastructure and the roll-out of clean water across the State. Householders also want greater clarity regarding who is liable and who is responsible when it comes to ongoing sewage problems near their homes. The council says it is Irish Water and Irish Water says it is the other way round. <br \/><br \/>\u201cIf the Government has no intention of introducing excessive use charges, why not support the Sinn F\u00e9in Bill and remove the provision from the Water Services Act? Sinn F\u00e9in has been clear on the issue. Excessive use charges constitute a pretext for water charges.\u201d <br \/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Dublin South West Se\u00e1n Crowe has said that Sinn F\u00e9in are committed to ensuring that water charges are gone for good and that they took action that would have made sure that excessive use charges were not used as a pretext for their introduction. To that end, Sinn F\u00e9in brought forward [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5400,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5399\/revisions\/5400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}