Press Release - Local candidates challenged to ‘come clean’ on water charges – Labour’s Looney

Dermot Looney, a Labour Party candidate in the Tallaght Central ward in June’s local election, has challenged candidates in the election to state where they stand on the issue of water charges. The call comes in light of Minister John Gormley’s claim that the re-introduction of water charges was ‘inevitable.’ The claim was made by the Green Party Minister in a speech to the Academy of Engineering Institute on Tuesday, April 28^th.

Domestic water rates were scrapped by 1997 (by the Labour Party) and despite hints at reintroduction by Fianna Fáil in the time since, water charges have remained off the agenda. But the latest statement by the Minister for the Environment suggest that working people, already lashed through crises in jobs, public services and the economy as a whole, are again in the line of fire through water taxation.

“I oppose the reintroduction of water charges,” Looney said. "So does the Labour Party."

“Resource struggles for water, particularly in the context of climate change, are hitting headlines across the world. But this latest statement by Minister Gormley shows the huge gap in philosophy between the Green Party and the Labour Party on how best to go forward; the Greens look at water as a commodity to be rationed, while Labour views it within the rights framework. We believe that everybody has the right to free, clean and safe water provided, not through private companies, but accountable public utilities. Water should be paid for through general taxation, not in the form of a regressive stealth tax.”

“From talking to hundreds of people every week on doorsteps and elsewhere I know that working people are very concerned with the possibility of another stealth tax. Those on the left in this election are on record as opposing the water tax. I am giving a personal commitment to oppose it if elected as a Councillor. Now it’s up to all other candidates – particularly those in Fianna Fáil and the Greens - to come clean and state, as a matter of public record, whether they will vote with us to oppose water charges.”

Gummy Spending Limits And the Need for Ethical Cash

After months of haranguing the Minister for Environment, John Gormley TD, eventually launched the much-vaunted local election spending limits today.

You'll find the details here.

The results, predictably, are a toothless whitewash, if that metaphorical mix is permitted.

For LEA's the size of Tallaght Central, a €15,000 spending limit will apply. For members of political parties, this is automatically reduced to €13,500 because a ten per cent levy (haven't we had enough of that word) is imposed on those getting support from party head offices.

Although our ward is one of the biggest in the country, the €15,000 doesn't bother me one bit. We simply haven't a hope of raising that amount of cash to spend. Nor do I intend traipsing along to a host of banks looking for loans that we may very well struggle to pay back.

We are more ambitious, perhaps, than any other campaign in Tallaght Central and I am sure our efforts will be noticeable in the final weeks of the campaign in particular. Regardless, our expenditure will be a fraction of that figure.

The figure is too high in the first place, but that's not likely to affect the heavy spenders anyway. The 'spending limits' apply only to the last 60 days of the campaign. Anyone in fear of going over the limit can simply front-end their spending to, say, 61 days before!

Not that it particularly matters. The proposals, as usual, are toothless. There is little on the way of resourcing of investigation of how accounts have been kept, their accuracy and what has been left off. Even if dodgy dealings were uncovered, there seems to be *no* punishment for those who lie or fraud their way in election accounts.

This is a typical Green governmental sop, simple as.

We will win our campaign here in Tallaght Central not on how much we spend, nor on how much we say we haven't spent - but on actual political engagement with voters, by the promotion of our message, and by the politics and values we put forward.

Money is most certainly needed for a modern election campaign - that's why I launched a donation drive last week - but for us, donations are small and from ordinary people who support our campaign. We refuse point-blank the big business and speculator bribery which hurt our communities and corrupted the politics of this country, and continues to do so.

Fianna Fáil and their cronies will have you believing this was all in the distant past, a relic of a byegone era. But let's look at facts - as Elaine Byrne has in today's Times.

1. Treasury Holdings declared donations of €100,000 to Fianna Fáil between 1997 and 2007 - and a further €70,000 to the PD's.

2. In total, the Fianna Fáil party, including its parliamentary wing, declared donations of more than €3 million during those ten years - approaching 60% of all declared donations.

3. Of the €1.5 million donated directly to the Fianna Fáil party itself, €600,000 - about 40% - came straight from developers.

4. These are iceberg tips. As Byrne notes, "The 2008 standards commission report found that €8.8 million in political donations were not disclosed in the three-week period before the 2007 general election (never mind that spent in the previous two years!)."

It's entirely factual to say Fianna Fáil are the party most supported by, and supportive of, big developers and big bankers. It is political corruption of the highest order - whether in-your-face-blatant or only blatant (there's nothing subtle about it). And a huge part of the progressive task is to ensure that culture of closeness is purged from Irish politices in this generation.