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An incredibly sloppy and prejudiced piece of journalism from @harrymcgee in todays @IrishTimes. The media's continued pursuit of domestic water charges is tantamount to lobbying at this stage. The WFD does NOT require Ireland to impose domestic water charges. 
What it does do is require governments to charge commercial companies like Britvic (Ballygowan, Club) abstraction charges. Currently there are no limits on water extracted & no minimum fee for taking public water. This is arguably a breach of WFD, but yet nothing from media?
And while the headline for todays article says, "Water charges of €500 may be in pipeline for those who waste," again, portraying the Irish public as some sort of delinquents with water usage, the gov's own expert commission said the following:
Truth is, Irish people consume up to 25% less water than our UK brothers & sisters, where water charges have been in place for 30 years. So, why are the media continuing this constant line or portraying the Irish as wasters?
Another thing, we have more water availability per capita than almost any other country in the EU too. Five times more than the UK or France, for example. But of course, where citizens of other countries can benefit from their natural resources, Irish people cannot.
Why is that, you might ask? Well, think about who uses water. Domestic households use a fraction. It is big business who use most. And when they were bringing in domestic metered charges, they were reducing charges for those very businesses. In fact, 50% pay NOTHING anyway.
You'll hear many say, "we need domestic charges as a conservation measure". Nonsense. This is where our treated water goes. If you want to address conservation, FIX THE FUCKING LEAKS. Spending €1billion on meters makes no sense. Especially when you will only get €30m in return
This is the real objective of domestic water charges. Our media refuses to tackle this issue, or cover the fact that 3 years after the Dail voted unanimously to hold a referendum, it is being cynically blocked by @FineGael & @fiannafailparty. THEY WANT TO PRIVATISE OUR WATER!
Anyone interested in educating themselves on domestic water charges & facts behind the #Right2Water struggle can educate themselves here. Don't believe what many in the mainstream media tell you. Some of them benefit from Irish Water advertising anyway tinyurl.com/ybyzynol
