Big water protest for Galway on Saturday

A protest opposing water taxes is planned through Galway City on Saturday as part of countrywide day of action.

Buoyed by the Government’s belated 20% tax relief for families to offset the cost of water in the Budget two weeks ago in the wake of the biggest public protest since the 1970s against taxes, campaigners are aiming to up the pressure on Fine Gael and Labour, who both poorly in the last two by-elections.

“The Government are panicking, but also trying to plot a way out,” remarked Dette McLoughlin, one of the organisers with the campaign group, Right2Water Galway.
“The people’s response has shaken the government. Even Fine Gael backbenchers are reporting that this issue is a fiasco just like the medical cards.

The Government had to accede to the people’s outcry over the withdrawal of discretionary medical cards and the previous government had to run for cover from the militant pensioner’s movement in 2009.

“Right2Water Galway believe that we can do the same regarding the unfair and unjust water charges.”

She urged people to turn out in their thousands for the protest and bring their Irish Water applications with them for a public burning.

Conor Burke of the Anti-Austerity Alliance has called for a “mass non-payment” of the charges when the first bills drop in January.

“The government has now come out with a series of small concessions aimed at trying to stifle the momentum of the growing campaign of opposition. People are very clear on what Irish Water represents. We saw this before with bin charges when waivers were introduced for those on low incomes only for the waivers to be axed at a later date,” he stated.

The protest kicks off at 1pm from the Spanish Arch, marching to Eyre Square for 2pm. It will be a family friendly event with puppets and poetry by local poets Sarah Clancy and Anne Irwin, music and singing from Queen Elvis and Cula Bula Street Theatre by some of Galway’s own community actors, balloons and shakers for children. Representatives will speak from Right2Water Galway, Galway Lock-out, and We Won’t Pay campaigns. Anyone attending is encouraged to bring along musical instruments, props or posters.

For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune.