Water meter protests

I've been kinda following the story about the water meter protests on & off for a few weeks now via the Dublin says no facebook page (looks like there's trouble in Raheny today with the Gardaí there).

I can't say I'm a big fan of another bill but it's very clear that we are going to be paying for water next year no matter what.

I admire the dedication of the people who've been out protesting everyday but I can't help but wonder if their actions won't inevitably help increase the water charges. Irish water have contractors working for them & the workers will get paid regardless of weather they install no meters or 10 meters a day. The longer the protesters block work, the longer Irish water will need to keep the contractors on the payroll & you can guarantee that cost will be passed on in the long run.

What do other people think about the protests?

Alf. A. Male

Deleted User wrote: »

What do other people think about the protests?

Well-intentioned but futile. Trying to combat any move like this, bin charges, water charges etc. is pointless at the stage when the bin lorry is outside or they're installing a meter, the horse has bolted. In general, Irish people need to become more informed, active, engaged and organised about protesting, not shouting at a workman when it's too late.

hmmm

I'm all for people paying for what they use. If someone spends all day watering their gardens, I shouldn't have to pay the same amount in tax for water as they do. I'm even more in favour of people who pay no tax at all making some contribution to the costs involved.

wretcheddomain

Just an excuse for thugs and riff-raff to behave like thugs and riff-raff.

Arthur Beesley

These lads are revolting.

RandomName2

hmmm wrote: »

I'm all for people paying for what they use. If someone spends all day watering their gardens, I shouldn't have to pay the same amount in tax for water as they do. I'm even more in favour of people who pay no tax at all making some contribution to the costs involved.

Does someone spending all day watering actually add to costs enough for it to be non-negligible ?

No Pants

Irish Water will do what they've already done elsewhere; move on and stick the properties on an estimated tariff, which is likely to be higher.

I'm sick of hearing about the "polluter pays principle". When they bring that in for motor tax, I'll start paying attention.

Chips Lovell

No Pants wrote: »

When they bring that in for motor tax, I'll start paying attention.

They did

No Pants

Oscar Gateaux wrote: »

They did

Really? I pay almost a grand a year for mine and it spends an average of five days a week in the driveway.

Coat22

Won’t be futile – they’ll end up getting an “exemption” and won’t have to pay because they couldn’t be bothered their ar$e contributing to society apart from scabbing off it.

I’m big time in favour of water charges if it means less in other taxes such as income tax and VAT. I think even these muppets realise the money for their houses/holidays/pints has to come from somewhere but they genuinely believe that the “rich” (ie those earning 2-3k a month and having to pay out 50% in mortgage costs) should be made pay it for them.

It will all be irrelevant anyway as they’ll all vote in the shinners at the next election and it will all be reversed in favour of the “working class” (if ever there was irony in a term)

I would be more in favour of sorting out the black economy as a means of bringing down the tax burden – of course that would send shivers up the spine of most of these people.

Chips Lovell

No Pants wrote: »

Really? I pay almost a grand a year for mine and it spends an average of five days a week in the driveway.

And you'd be paying more tax if you were driving it every day and/or driving a more polluting car.

Coat22

No Pants wrote: »

Really? I pay almost a grand a year for mine and it spends an average of five days a week in the driveway.

Then you seriously need to look at the option of flogging it and renting a car when required at the weekend

RandomName2

Coat22 wrote: »

I’m big time in favour of water charges if it means less in other taxes such as income tax and VAT.

Fat chance of that!

No Pants

Oscar Gateaux wrote: »

And you'd be paying more tax if you were driving it every day

How do you make that out? I pay the same amount quarterly, six-monthly or annually regardless of whether the wheels move or not.

Chips Lovell

No Pants wrote: »

How do you make that out? I pay the same amount quarterly, six-monthly or annually regardless of whether the wheels move or not.

Your Motor Tax is based on your car's CO2 emissions. You also pay a carbon tax for every litre of petrol you buy.

jiltloop

No Pants wrote: »

How do you make that out? I pay the same amount quarterly, six-monthly or annually regardless of whether the wheels move or not.

Tax on petrol/diesel.

Coat22

Coat22 wrote: »

Won’t be futile – they’ll end up getting an “exemption” and won’t have to pay because they couldn’t be bothered their ar$e contributing to society apart from scabbing off it.

I don't want to label all the protesters as scroungers but it's hard to see how they have so much time to protest if they don't work. Simple solution to an exemption would be to stop the water charge directly from any benefits they receive.

Augmerson

There was a lad in a video on that Facebook page op who barged into the workers installing the metres and fell to the ground like Ashley Young when they pushed him off. No need for it. I think the video has been removed now.

ciarawira

wretcheddomain wrote: »

Just an excuse for thugs and riff-raff to behave like thugs and riff-raff.

Excuse me but i am neither a thug or riff raff nor did i behave in such a manner! I protest the charges because : 1. The water is sub-standered
2. The meters are sub-standered
and 3. We already pay for water through taxes!



What gives you the right to tar everyone with the same brush?

kneemos

Curious how people have succumbed so easily to this tax, even to the point of turning against the protesters.Yet no doubt everyone will complain endlessly about having to pay it.

ciarawira

Deleted User wrote: »

I don't want to label all the protesters as scroungers but it's hard to see how they have so much time to protest if they don't work. Simple solution to an exemption would be to stop the water charge directly from any benefits they receive.

Not everyone who doesn't work receives benefits!

My name is URL

Just saw this posted on Reddit

http://i.imgur.com/gWADurN.jpg

BanterZone

I look at the Dublin Says No page now and again for a bit of amusement. Without agreeing or disagreeing with what they stand for I find their conduct so childish its almost as if its satire, deleting any comments that disagree with their actions or views, immature recordings.

Anatom

Its not the protestors which annoy me, its their tactics - Pretending to fall over at the drop of a hat / Assaulting contractors / Interfering with work / Harrassing residents who do want a meter to be installed etc. are not the most effective tactics to employ and only serve to isolate them from possibly like-minded people.

Its their actions, not their stance that will continue to lose them support and their ultimate fate will be to lose and, for many of them, to move on to the next big "issue".

Satriale

My name is URL wrote: »

Just saw this posted on Reddit

http://i.imgur.com/gWADurN.jpg

shouldnt they have safety helmets/steel toecaps on inside that barricade?

solomafioso

My name is URL wrote: »

Just saw this posted on Reddit

http://i.imgur.com/gWADurN.jpg

Waiting for someone to photoshop Kevin Costner and Dennis Hopper a la Waterworld in to that! :pac:

BanterZone

BanterZone wrote: »

I look at the Dublin Says No page now and again for a bit of amusement. Without agreeing or disagreeing with what they stand for I find their conduct so childish its almost as if its satire, deleting any comments that disagree with their actions or views, immature recordings.

If anyone disagrees with them their bombarded with abuse.

No Pants

Oscar Gateaux wrote: »

Your Motor Tax is based on your car's CO2 emissions. You also pay a carbon tax for every litre of petrol you buy.

My motor tax isn't based on my car's CO2 emissions.

DoesNotCompute

Oscar Gateaux wrote: »

Your Motor Tax is based on your car's CO2 emissions. You also pay a carbon tax for every litre of petrol you buy.

It's varies depending on when your car was registered, is it not?

Chips Lovell

No Pants wrote: »

My motor tax isn't based on my car's CO2 emissions.

You've a pre-2008 car?

kneemos

My name is URL wrote: »

Just saw this posted on Reddit

http://i.imgur.com/gWADurN.jpg

What's that costing?

DoesNotCompute

ciarawira wrote: »

Excuse me but i am neither a thug or riff raff nor did i behave in such a manner! I protest the charges because : 1. The water is sub-standered
2. The meters are sub-standered
and 3. We already pay for water through taxes!



What gives you the right to tar everyone with the same brush?

3. You don't pay enough. That's why water charges are being brought in
1. Water quality will improve with more funds
2. So if they invested in better (i.e. more expensive) water meters, you'd be OK with paying water charges?

Coat22

RandomName2 wrote: »

Fat chance of that!

You would be paying MORE now than the riducolous amount we are currently paying - the €500M or whatever it is has to come from somewhere :-)

Macy0161

kneemos wrote: »

Curious how people have succumbed so easily to this tax, even to the point of turning against the protesters.Yet no doubt everyone will complain endlessly about having to pay it.

Maybe because a significant proportion of the population already pay for water - either a group water scheme, or through drilling and maintaining a private well.

BMJD

the time to say NO was in 2002 and 2007 but the majority of people fell for Bertie's horsefunkin$hite as usual

also, not everybody works 9 - 5 :rolleyes:

No Pants

jiltloop wrote: »

Tax on petrol/diesel.

May I please draw your attention to this important detail from post number 7?

No Pants wrote: »

motor tax

Chips Lovell

I think you're going down a rabbithole of needless pedantry here.

Taxation of car ownership very much follows a polluter pays model these days. The more polluting your car's engine is, the more Motor Tax you pay. The more fuel you burn, the more Carbon Tax you pay.

You may own a car that pre-dates the introduction of that system, but that doesn't alter the fact that such as system now exists.

ciarawira

DoesNotCompute wrote: »

3. You don't pay enough. That's why water charges are being brought in
1. Water quality will improve with more funds
2. So if they invested in better (i.e. more expensive) water meters, you'd be OK with paying water charges?

Are you saying we should take their word that the water will improve? A little naive no!? Would you buy slightly gone off milk at a higher price at a promise from the government that it won't spoil more but will improve once you hand over your hard earned cash??
not necessarily but if they proved that the meters were not harmful or sub-standered it would be a start!

BMJD

Oscar Gateaux wrote: »

Taxation of car ownership very much follows a polluter pays model these days. The more polluting your cars engine is, the more Motor Tax you pay.

that depends entirely on its usage; a parked-up car isn't polluting at all

ciarawira

ciarawira wrote: »

Are you saying we should take their word that the water will improve? A little naive no!? Would you buy slightly gone off milk at a higher price at a promise from the government that it won't spoil more but will improve once you hand over your hard earned cash??
not necessarily but if they proved that the meters were not harmful or sub-standered it would be a start!

I've seen similar remarks about the meters before but never understood why people are saying the meters are harmful, can you explain how their harmful?

No Pants

Oscar Gateaux wrote: »

You've a pre-2008 car?

No, it's a 2008 registration.

suicide_circus

hmmm wrote: »

I'm all for people paying for what they use. If someone spends all day watering their gardens, I shouldn't have to pay the same amount in tax for water as they do. I'm even more in favour of people who pay no tax at all making some contribution to the costs involved.

People who pay no tax wont be paying for their water usage either.

Anatom

Deleted User wrote: »

I've seen similar remarks about the meters before but never understood why people are saying the meters are harmful, can you explain how their harmful?

They're not harmful - at all. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what they're talking about and is just scaremongering.

macwal

Satriale wrote: »

shouldnt they have safety helmets/steel toecaps on inside that barricade?

Who's to say that they are the ones inside the barricade, maaaaaaaaaaan?

It's all a matter of perception.

suicide_circus

kneemos wrote: »

What's that costing?

Dosnt matter, the people who have the time to assault contractors during the day aren't paying for the gardai.

BMJD

suicide_circus wrote: »

People who pay no tax wont be paying for their water usage either.

that's right, we have to protect the "most vulnerable" from any form of responsibility

Anatom

Anatom wrote: »

They're not harmful - at all. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what they're talking about and is just scaremongering.

That's what I thought. I was just curious to see what the reasoning behind those remarks was.

Anatom

Deleted User wrote: »

That's what I thought. I was just curious to see what the reasoning behind those remarks was.

Oh I'll be interested to see that reasoning too..!

smellmepower

Nice handy days work for the 5 Gardai in that picture!

Don't see them for dust round here when there's a break in or a stolen car tearing about,but I'm sure they'll be out in force to protect DOB's profits.

PropJoe10

My name is URL wrote: »

Just saw this posted on Reddit

http://i.imgur.com/gWADurN.jpg

This might be funny, if it wasnt for the ridiculously high level of crime in this country at the moment. Its reassuring to know that our police force is being utilised in such an important way.

No Pants

smellmepower wrote: »

Nice handy days work for the 5 Gardai in that picture!

Looks boring as hell.