21 June 2001 Edition
Labour blocks anti water privatisation motion
The Sinn Féin group on Dublin City Council proposed at the June meeting that the Council ``oppose any attempt to privatise Dublin City's water supply and services, and fully endorses the Corporation workers in opposing privatisation''.
``There are definite plans, emanating from the EU, to enforce privatisation of the water supply and services in Ireland. EU regulations have called for water charges to be imposed in all member states,'' Dessie Ellis explains. ``And there can be no doubt that through privatisation the government intends to re-impose these charges which the people of Dublin successfully fought a decade ago.''
``It is of major importance that privatisation of such an essential service, at present run by the council, should not end up in the hands of profiteering private companies, which will then be able to charge whatever they want to householders. There is no way that the water supply should be held by any private company.''
The argument used to justify privatisation of water is the fact that some £60 million investment is required to repair water piping, which is estimated to be so badly impaired that at least 50% of water supplies throughout the 26 counties are wasted.
But as Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Sinn Féin representative in Dublin South Central, points out: ``The solution is for the government to repair the piping, not to hive off the water supply service to private companies, which will then be in a position to hold the people to ransom for this essential service.''
Members of the Sinn Féin group on the council, who were supported by Finian McGrath and other independents, lost the resolution, due, they say, to Labour Party councillors, who failed to support the motion. ``How much,'' asks Dessie Ellis, ``has Labour Party politics degenerated if they have moved so far from their traditions as to oppose Corporation workers fighting to retain their jobs, and worse, supporting privatisation of essential services against the interests of people fighting to retain their right to a free water supply. Jim Larkin must be turning in his grave.''
``There are definite plans, emanating from the EU, to enforce privatisation of the water supply and services in Ireland. EU regulations have called for water charges to be imposed in all member states,'' Dessie Ellis explains. ``And there can be no doubt that through privatisation the government intends to re-impose these charges which the people of Dublin successfully fought a decade ago.''
``It is of major importance that privatisation of such an essential service, at present run by the council, should not end up in the hands of profiteering private companies, which will then be able to charge whatever they want to householders. There is no way that the water supply should be held by any private company.''
The argument used to justify privatisation of water is the fact that some £60 million investment is required to repair water piping, which is estimated to be so badly impaired that at least 50% of water supplies throughout the 26 counties are wasted.
But as Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Sinn Féin representative in Dublin South Central, points out: ``The solution is for the government to repair the piping, not to hive off the water supply service to private companies, which will then be in a position to hold the people to ransom for this essential service.''
Members of the Sinn Féin group on the council, who were supported by Finian McGrath and other independents, lost the resolution, due, they say, to Labour Party councillors, who failed to support the motion. ``How much,'' asks Dessie Ellis, ``has Labour Party politics degenerated if they have moved so far from their traditions as to oppose Corporation workers fighting to retain their jobs, and worse, supporting privatisation of essential services against the interests of people fighting to retain their right to a free water supply. Jim Larkin must be turning in his grave.''