Fianna Fáil: Pay your water bills
FIANNA Fáil TDs yesterday urged people to pay their water bills – even though the party has pledged to suspend water charges and not refund anyone who has already paid them.
Fianna Fáil had pledged in the election campaign to abolish Irish Water and freeze water charges for five years.
However, it was explicit it would not refund charges which had already been paid by almost a million householders. And it made clear that those pepole who refused to pay will simply be let off, meaning that ‘good citizens’ will have subsidised people who refused to pay.
Yet despite this, the party yesterday urged people to continue paying their bills until the charge is scrapped.
Mayo Fianna Fáil TD Dara Calleary yesterday tried to blame this fiasco on the previous government, even htough that regime is not behind the moves to scrap charges or let off non-payers. ‘Those bills have to be legally paid because of the decisions that Fine Gael and Labour have taken and as long as they have to be legally paid, I’ll be paying mine and we advocate payment. It’s the law and the law that has been left by Fine Gael and Labour,’ he said.
Limerick TD Willie O’Dea said that not to do so would be breaking the law. ‘I can’t tell people to break the law, we voted against water charges, but unfortunately the Bill was passed,’ he said.
Mr O’Dea failed to mention that the plan to bring in water charges was drawn up by the previous Fianna Fáil government in which he had served.