Murphy warns of new street protests if water charges return

Reports of some type of charge was ‘least surprising news of the year’

 

Anti-water charge protests will return to Irish streets if charges are reintroduced, a lead campaigner has vowed.

It follows reports by RTE that an expert commission examining the controversial charges may conclude some form of payment be required so Ireland can meet its obligations under EU rules.

The report of the Commission is still being finalised and will set out a number of funding options and will be presented to an Oireachtas Committee in the next fortnight.

Paul Murphy, who will represent the Anti-Austerity Alliance - People Before Profit (AAA-PBP) group on the committee to consider charges, said the reports were the “least surprising news of the year”.

“Close to €300,000 of public money has been spent on this ‘political exercise’, designed to pile on pressure on TDs to break their election promises to oppose water charges,” he said on Saturday.

“Whatever the Expert Water Commission says will not change the reality of this political debate. A majority of TDs elected to the Dáil were elected on a platform which included opposition to water charges and Irish Water.”

Mr Murphy said any attempt to reintroduce charges would precipitate a return of the mass protests and rallies that helped shape the last general election.

“Fianna Fáil will hold the balance of power between anti-water charges and pro-water charges forces on the Dáil committee and in the Dáil itself,” he said.

“What happens with water charges in this Dáil term will be decided by whether they stick to their election promises and the recent definitive anti-water charges position they put in their submission to the Commission.”

In a statement to the commission, Fianna Fáil proposed the water infrastructure be paid for through general taxation and the principle of charging for usage should be abolished for good.

That marked a departure from its previous stance that charges should only be suspended, as it argued in its negotiations with Fine Gael earlier this year to facilitate a minority government led by Enda Kenny.

Source: Irish Times, Nov 19, 2016

Slovenia adds water to constitution as fundamental right for all

Parliament adopts amendment that declares country’s abundant clean supplies are ‘a public good managed by the state’ and ‘not a market commodity’

Slovenia’s water belongs to all its citizens, the country’s parliament has declared in a constitutional amendment. Photograph: Alamy

 

Slovania has amended its constitution to make access to drinkable water a fundamental right for all citizens and stop it being commercialised.

With 64 votes in favour and none against, the 90-seat parliament added an article to the EU country’s constitution saying “everyone has the right to drinkable water”.

The centre-right opposition Slovenian Democratic party (SDS) abstained from the vote saying the amendment was not necessary and only aimed at increasing public support.

Slovenia is a mountainous, water-rich country with more than half its territory covered by forest.

“Water resources represent a public good that is managed by the state. Water resources are primary and durably used to supply citizens with potable water and households with water and, in this sense, are not a market commodity,” the article reads.

The centre-left prime minister, Miro Cerar, had urged lawmakers to pass the bill saying the country of two million people should “protect water – the 21st century’s liquid gold – at the highest legal level”.

“Slovenian water has very good quality and, because of its value, in the future it will certainly be the target of foreign countries and international corporations’ appetites.

“As it will gradually become a more valuable commodity in the future, pressure over it will increase and we must not give in,” Cerar said.

Slovenia is the first European Union country to include the right to water in its constitution, although according to Rampedre (the online Permanent World Report on the Right to Water) 15 other countries across the world had already done so.

Earlier this year Slovenia also declared the world’s first green destination country by the Netherlands-based organisation Green Destinations, while its capital, Ljubljana, was made the 2016 European Green Capital.

 Amnesty International said Slovenia must ensure the new law would be also applied to the 10,000-12,000 Roma people living in the country.

“Many Roma are … denied even minimum levels of access to water and sanitation,” Amnesty said in a statement.

The European Union agreed in 2014 to exclude water supply and water resources management from the rules governing the European internal market, following the first successful European Citizens’ Initiative that managed to raise more than one million signatures.

Source: Guardian, Nov 18, 2016

UK Claim on Lough Foyle has never been settled

Historically, when Lough Foyle was discussed in Inishowen, the conversation revolved mostly around the fishing rights  and the disputed nature of who owned what.  In the end it usually ended up by agreeing that there is a dividing line separating the Lough into two halves  -  a half for them a half for us. In truth people did not have a clue about the true situations that pertains to the Lough.

It was only when Donegal Co Co came forward with a proposal to discharge sewage effluent into the Lough at Carnagarve (  www.savethefoyle.com )  and a local campaign group, Community For a Clean Estuary, carried out extensive research that the true picture began to emerge.  It quickly became very clear that Lough Foyle was a story in two parts  -  

1.  The use and management of the water in the Lough
2. Ownership of the sea-bed.

 

The Loughs Agency is tasked with the responsibility of part 1. This is clearly seen from their Mission Statement

"The Loughs Agency aims to provide sustainable social, economic and environmental benefits through the effective conservation, protection,management, promotion and development of the fisheries and marine resources of the Foyle and Carlingford Areas"  

 

It is only when the Fisheries Division of Northern Ireland and the Irish Govt combined and came forward in 2007 with Draft Legislation (Source: http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2007/act/17/section/4/enacted/en/html ) to regulate the Aquaculture  Fishery in Lough Foyle that the 'Elephant in the Room '  put in it's appearance in the guise of the Crown Estates.

When this legislation was presented to the Crown Estates as a 'stakeholder' for comment it is clear from the response (see letter crown_states.pdf ) that they would not accept the proposed draft legislation and from that date the process has stalled. The letter from the Crown Estates demonstrates and clarifies the true picture in relation to who calls the shots on the ownership of the sea bed of Lough Foyle.

This is the major 'spanner in the works ' which was never addressed from the foundation of the state and missed again by the Good Friday Agreement.

"In the context of the Good Friday Agreement, a decision was taken to co-operate on foreshore and other issues that arise in the management of the lough from conservation and other points of view." http://sluggerotoole.com

 

At least Mr James Brokenshire has put the British Government's cards on the table.  Will it force some kind of response from the Irish Authorities? 

This controversy has come to the fore again because of Brexit and if this British claim holds up what then are the implications for anyone from Donegal or indeed Republic of Ireland as a whole with regard to business andaccess to all amenities of Lough Foyle?