Action on water charge defaulters still unclear

Foreword
All mainstream newspapers should really have a warning attached 'Read with Caution".  There are some things in this  Irish Examiner article that need read with sceptical eyes.  Here is some sound advise from fliuch.org

"With all due respect to Fiachra who is just reporting what happened (to an extent) this is just nonsense. Irish Water Ltd « it’s a limited company – has no recourse to pursue anyone via Revenue or Welfare. If it wants to pursue anyone for unpaid charges it will have to do it as a civil matter through debt collectors, solicitors and the courts like any normal company. It will also have to establish that a binding contract was in place.

If you receive a letter of demand for payment from Irish Water Ltd., or a debt collection agency or a solicitor or a court simply Return To Sender with the sticker template we’ve given you" – Fliuch.

Irish Examiner, Dec 1, 2016
Action on water charge defaulters still unclear

By Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

The Government has failed to clarify if people who have not paid water charges will be pursued through the courts, tax or social welfare payments systems.

Education Minister Richard Bruton, who took the place of theTaoiseach in the Dáil, was questioned on the water commission report.

Education Minister Richard Bruton repeatedly side-stepped the issue during a Dáil debate yesterday, as the Coalition was accused of trying to bring back charges “through the back door” of “excessive” water usage.

Speaking during the Leaders’ Questions debate, Mr Bruton, who took the place of US-bound Taoiseach Enda Kenny, was questioned over the exact implications of Tuesday’s water commission report.

However, despite direct questions over how people who have refused to pay the charges to date will be treated and calls for clarity on whether fees for “excessive” usage are a way to quietly re-introduce charges, he did not give any firm answers on the issues.

Questioned by Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald about Housing and Local Government Minister Simon Coveney’s comments yesterday that people who have not paid to date will be “pursued”, Mr Bruton did not explain what the plan will involve.

Asked specifically if it relates to “pursuing through the courts, revenue or through social welfare payments”, Mr Bruton instead said “no one who did their civic duty and paid up” should be unfairly treated”.

During a separate exchange, AAA-PBP TD Richard Boyd Barrett warned Mr Bruton the water commission report’s recommendation that an as yet undefined “vast majority” of people will not pay fees while those using “excessive” amounts of water will face charges is a “fudge to save the blushes of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil”.

Mr Boyd Barrett said the report found there was no reason for Ireland to have a charging system as the country uses 20% less water per home than Britain where charges are in place. He said this shows ‘the polluter pays’ principle is not based on logic.

However, Mr Bruton said the issue needs to be “deliberated in a mature way” by the 20-person cross-party Oireachtas committee examining the findings, adding pointedly, that Mr Boyd Barrett is a member of this group.

The responses led to an angry reaction from Ms McDonald, who said the public has made it clear there can be “no return of water charges through the front or back door” and that “given your track record, how could anyone trust you”.

Source
https://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/action-on-water-charge-defaulters-still-unclear-433123.html 
http://fliuch.org/action-on-water-charge-defaulters-still-unclear/

Jobstown Not Guilty - Will you get behind us?

by Paul Murphy

Almost two years after the Jobstown protest the first false imprisonment trial will start on Monday in the Children’s Court where a 17-year-old, who recently completed his Leaving Cert, faces imprisonment.

The sit-down protest at Jobstown, Tallaght, November 2014

“An injury to one is an injury to all” – so goes the old union slogan.

It is a principle which #JobstownNotGuilty is appealing to, as we seek to rally opposition to a major threatened injustice next week.

On November 15, 2014, then Tanaiste and leader of the Labour Party, Joan Burton was met by a spontaneous protest in Jobstown.

The protest grew to hundreds of people, as a community ravaged by the impact of austerity and betrayed by the Labour Party came out to make their voice heard.

A sit-down protest behind her car, which was parked beside a food bank took place, followed by another sit-down protest and slow march in front of a Garda jeep that Ms Burton was moved into.

In total, the protest went on for about two and a half hours. Around the corner, it later emerged, a homeless couple were living in their car for weeks.

After almost two eventful years, including two weeks of heavy-handed dawn raids, finding out through the media that we were to be charged with false imprisonment, and the tragic death of one of the accused, the trials are now upon us.

The first false imprisonment trial will start on Monday in the Children’s Court, where a 17-year-old young man, who recently completed his Leaving Cert, will stand trial.

“It’ll never go to trial” we were all re-assured repeatedly by people incredulous that the definition of false imprisonment could be stretched to include sit-down protests and slow marching. Yet it is.

This is not going to stop before Monday. By the end of next week, a young man could be sentenced to jail.

Next April, the first group of adult defendants will begin their six-week trial and could face up to life in prison. The total cost to the State of these prosecutions runs into the millions of euros.

How did it come to this?

This is not the first occasion when Ministers were delayed as a result of sit-down protests.

Take just one university, University College Dublin (UCD): Taoiseach Charlie Haughey was met by sit-down protests in 1989.

In 2002, Minister Noel Dempsey was stuck in a building surrounded by protesting students for hours.

Six years later, Brian Lenihan was reportedly ‘blockaded’ by protesting students there again.

Not one prosecution for even minor public order offences, never mind false imprisonment, followed any of these protests.

What’s so special about Jobstown?

It is a working-class community and a protest that has come to symbolise the dramatic shift in Irish politics.

That shift is one deeply unfavourable for the traditional establishment parties and the economic elite that they represent.

A key part of that change is the refusal of people to play the role allotted to them of ‘waiting in the long grass’ for elections – passively voting for parties like the Labour Party at election time, only to be sold out once again.

Instead, the anti-water charges movement was the lightning rod for accumulated anger to explode.

The result was widespread civil disobedience, centred in working-class communities like Jobstown.

Instead of the caricature of apathy, these communities were central to protests against Ministers, the prevention of the installation of unwanted water meters and, crucially, the 73% refusing to pay water charges bills.

Not only widespread civil disobedience, but successful widespread civil disobedience – with the Government forced to suspend water charges and Fianna Fáil forced into opposing them.

If you are part of the 1% in this country, with your traditional parties reduced to less than a combined 50% of support and Labour slashed from 37 seats to 7 – this is a very scary vista, considering the number of other issues that social movements are possible on.

It is a prospect that requires a strong response from their point of view. That is what explains the reaction of the state.

The effect of the conviction of people for false imprisonment would be to send a clear message – “this far and no further, back into your box. You may have forced us to suspend water charges, but don’t forget that effective protest is criminal and protesters will be criminalised.”

It is a draconian extension of the political policing that was on view in response to the anti-water charges movement, from the arrest of more than 200 protesters at anti-water meter protests, the outrageous jailing of a number, Operation Mizen spying against protesters and the denial of the Anti-Austerity Alliance of the right to fund raise on the grounds that the money would be used to “commission … an unlawful act”

This is a threat not just to the freedom and future of the 17-year-old, or the other 18 defendants.It represents much more than that.

It is an attack on the people of Jobstown and Tallaght – punishment for being to the forefront of the movement against austerity.

It is an attack on people’s democratic right to elect the TD of their choosing, because I would be removed as a TD if sentenced to more than six months in prison.

Most importantly, it is a fundamental attack on people’s right to protest. If sit-down protests are false imprisonment, then there are a lot of potential kidnappers out there.

Any striker who mounts an effective picket preventing the movement of vehicle could be guilty. Any anti-war protester who sits down outside Shannon airport could be guilty.

Any abortion rights protester who participates in a slow march could be guilty. We all become kidnappers.

It sounds farcical, but it is deadly serious. At stake here is people’s right to protest.

#JobstownNotGuilty was established by the defendants one year ago to co-ordinate a united defence campaign of all. We have been working away on legal and campaign preparations.

Now, we are appealing for people to support us and their own rights.

Much of the media has already pronounced our guilt, with the tone set from the day of our arrest, with Claire Byrne declaring that “you falsely imprisoned the Tánaiste” and continued famously by Ryan Tubridy on the Late Late Show, not to mention theSunday Independent.

We therefore rely on people themselves connecting with #JobstownNotGuilty  and spreading the information about the injustice that is threatened.

We need people to pass motions in trade unions, students’ unions and campaign groups.

We want other communities to publicly express their solidarity and support for Jobstown. This should become a national scandal – with a demand that the charges be dropped.

The 17-year-old is on trial for all of us next week.

We have launched a fundraising appeal to raise the €2,000 necessary for bail in case he is jailed, so that he can appeal without being incarcerated.

One of our campaign will read out a statement on his behalf at Saturday’s Right2Water march and we will be present with placards and leaflets.

Most importantly, we are appealing to people to turn out to the Children’s Court in Smithfield, Dublin 7on Monday morning at 10am for the start of the trial of the 17-year-old.

A massive display of solidarity is needed to show that we stand behind him.

Source: Broadsheet, Sept 16, 2016

Joan Burton tells court she could not get out of car during Jobstown protest

Former tánaiste worried she would not be able to run because she had lost her shoe

Protesters outside the trial of a 17-year-old for false imprisonment at the Children’s Court in Smithfield, Dublin. Photograph: Gareth Chaney Collins

Former tánaiste Joan Burton has told a court she was frightened and did not think she had the alternative of being able to get out of a car surrounded by people during a Jobstown protest.

She was giving evidence on day one of the trial of a Dublin youth (17) accused of falsely imprisoning Ms Burton and her advisor Karen O’Connell during the water demonstration at the Fortunestown Road in Jobstown in Tallaght, Dublin, on November 15th, 2014.

The youth was aged 15 at the time and is being tried before Judge John King at the Dublin Children’s Court. He denies the charges.

The prosecution alleges that the tánaiste and her entourage were trapped for about three hours after they had attended a graduation ceremony at the An Cosán education centre.

The former Labour leader and then minister for spcial protection told prosecuting counsel Tony McGillicuddy that she arrived at about 11.30 am for the ceremony. She said the current Minister for Children Katherine Zappone, and former Minister Kevin Humphries, as well as several academics, were also there.

She described the graduation ceremony as having a “happy atmosphere” and said she was given a warm welcome. The Dublin West TD said she had a lot of connections with the An Cosán centre because it promoted adult education.

She said that when she arrived she noticed some protesters. A young male in a clean blue tracksuit was holding a phone close to her face trying to take a photo and saying ‘Talk to us Joan’, she said.

The defence said that she was referring to the youth who was accompanied to the court by his mother and his legal team. The teenager cannot be named because he is a minor.

Ms Burton said that she went to a nearby church for the second part of the ceremony. She walked with her entourage as well as the graduates, academics and others involved with An Cosán.

She alleged that she was hit twice with water balloons, adding that it hurt and her clothes were wet. She said the crowd was pushing and she felt it surge and she described them as “very wild”. She said that was when the hassle started.

Her advisor Karen O’Connell gave her a jacket to wear for the remainder of the ceremony.

After she made her speech at the church she was advised by a garda that she would have to leave.

She said she made haste to a Garda car. She sat in the back with Ms O’Connell and she said there was a lot of noise and offensive language. Ms O’Connell was upset and she put her arms around her, the court was told.

There was a large number of children present and she was concerned about them, Ms Burton said. She said some of the protesters were banging on the windows. She also said the teenager was standing beside the car.

She said that there was a lot of vulgar abuse and she was called a “f***ing c*** and stuff like that”. She said she was annoyed that the graduation was disrupted.

One person behind the car had a megaphone and she said that at this point she wanted to be able to leave as early as possible.

She said she feared what would happen if they got the car door open.

Gardaí moved her to a second vehicle, a jeep. She said the officers were around her like a screen and the crowd was pushing. She said they were very aggressive and there was a lot of pushing. Plastic bottles and eggs were being thrown, she said.

She said that when she reached the Garda jeep she flung herself into the back seat. She felt “menaced” and added “I worried what will happen if they manage to open the car doors”. She said protesters continued banging on the roof and doors and shouting abuse.

She said she was very frightened and comforted Ms O’Connell. “She was a little upset and to be honest I put my arm around her and and said ‘we’ll be fine’,” she said.

When she was being moved to that car she had worried that she would not be able to run because she lost her shoe and she felt she was losing her footing.

There were more protesters around and the jeep off moved slowly. After what seemed a long time, she was transferred to a another Garda vehicle which rushed her away, she said. She was taken to Garda HQ in the Phoenix Park.

In cross-examination Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC, defending, put it to her that gardaí made an operational decision to progress the situation. “Are you suggesting I had an alternative, of leaving the car? Because I don’t think I had,” she replied.

Deputy Bruton said she made a statement to gardaí but had no knowledge of what charges would be brought. She denied that she hoped the event would be damaging to other or how she would present it for political purposes.

She agreed it was a protest which she said people were free to do but she added that “there were features of it which were extremely difficult for myself and other occupants of the car”.

The protest lasted for about three and a half hours the court heard.

Her former advisor Karen O’Connell told the court that when she was crying and in a state of shock.“I was very upset, I was hyper-ventilating, I felt very unsafe, I felt very distressed,” she said. People were using horrible language, she said.

She also said that during the walk from An Cosán to the church she was struck on her back.

She said they were surrounded and in the first car for about 45 minutes to an hour and could not move. The car was being shaken and it was a very frightening experience, she said. People were “sitting on the car behind us, the car could not move and we were frightened, we weren’t in a position to get out of the car, they were screaming profanities at his, I did not feel safe, I did not feel I could leave.”

When they were being moved to the jeep she heard someone say “Get the cunts, there they go”. She stumbled and they were bundled into the jeep, she said.

She also said that as situation escalated the number of protesters increased. A garda public order unit also came in riot gear and an agreement was made that the protesters could slow march out in front of the jeep, the court was told.

Short video clips taken by Deputy Burton and Ms O’Connell on their phones were also shown in court. Ms O’Connell also said demonstrators shouted at them that they hoped she and Ms Burton would die. She also alleged she saw a woman garda getting struck after an open can of beans was thrown at her.

The trial continues on Tuesday.

Source: Irish Times, Sept 19, 2016