Stand Firm, Do Not Pay Don't Take the Bait
What to do with bills
Irish Water bills have been sent out to quite a few houses in the Buncrana area since the start of April. These bills are for the periodJanuary to March. You will be getting the bills every 3 months, 4 times per year.
Buncrana Against Irish Water's position on water charges and Irish Water has not changed one iota. We are strongly opposed to both. We will be handing out leaflets in the next week which will ask people to stand strong with the rest of the country and boycott Irish Water bills. Do not pay. You can destroy the bills, you can hold on to them or you can return to sender. It is up to you. If you choose return to sender you can get a sticker on our web page buncranatogether.com or facebook page, no stamp required.
If we can get enough people not to pay then Irish Water will not be viable. Remember we are not only fighting for ourselves but for our children, our future generation. We understand that bills are frightening and that people can be intimidated but we can hold out at least until the next general election.
NO Panic
There is no need to panic about your bills. We have plenty of time to decide what to do. We have 15 months from the time you receive your bill before you get penalised. The following is from Irish Water's own
site.
" All customers who have unpaid arrears of at least the annual capped charge and haven’t entered into a payment plan with Irish Water, will attract an automatic late payment penalty of €30 (1 adult household) or €60 (all other households) for each year that the charges remain unpaid. This will be added to bills three months following a year of non-payment."
15 months in black and white.
Your water can not turned off. The Council can not take the charge through rent. Private landlords can not take it through rent. Charges can not be taken from your wages or social welfare. We have nothing to worry about other than Alan Kelly reneging on all previous agreements
and changes legislation again.
Do not accept Perks
Irish Water is offering you their product cheap at the moment and the government is handing out perks, €100 per annum until 2018, to join up. Their product is the cheapest in Europe. There is a reason for this? It is because Irish Water and the Government want to trick you into signing up with them. They need to get the numbers quickly. These perks and low charges may last until 2018. After 2018, all the handouts will be gone, Irish Water will be firmly established and your bills will increase dramatically. Your water and waste-water bill will be
equivalent to electric prices, if not more. The Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) has already given Irish Water permission to raise it's prices each year.
End goal Privatisation
Irish Water will be consuming billions more of tax payer's money to get the water system to such an economic profitable business level for what we believe is the inevitable end product. Full privatisation. Whoever buys Irish Water controls all the water resources in Ireland. Do you want this? We certainly don't think that this is right for the good of our country.
Do Not Accept a Contract
If you pay the Irish Water bill you will be accepting a contract with the company. This is the reason why we say not to pay and not to have any contact with them. We do not recognise Irish Water. Neither do we accept that we signed any contract with them. Irish Water state that the Water Services Acts 2007 and 2013 give them
the right to treat all users of public water supply as customers. The Buncrana Against Irish Water group along with all the groups throughout Ireland do not accept this and we state that these Acts do not
supersedes all other prior laws and our legal rights
