North
- Special Feature No to water charges! By Gary Mulcahy |
With the local and general election campaigns underway, politicians from the main four parties are under huge pressure to express opposition to water charges. But
the very same parties when they shared power in the previous Assembly
Executive all agreed to introduce water charges. Now they are looking
for votes, they will try to pull the wool over people's eyes. Their manifestos
will no doubt claim that they opposed the charges. This is a lie and
here are the facts to prove it. Did the parties support water charges? The introduction of water charges in Northern Ireland has its roots back when the Assembly Executive negotiated the Reinvestment & Reform initiative with the Treasury in May 2002. The RRI allowed the Executive to borrow an extra £200million a year on the condition that rates were increased, public services were privatised and that water charges were introduced. Following the announcement of the RRI, a consultation process on the Review of Rating Policy was initiated by Minister for Finance & Personnel, Sean Farren (SDLP). He issued a consultation paper in May 2002 which was agreed by the Committee for Finance & Personnel, chaired by Sinn Fein's Francie Molloy, and by all the Ministers in the Executive. In this paper, proposals to increase rates and methods of introducing water charges were presented. The last set of "Key Issues" deals with water charges. In this section, it states that people in Northern Ireland do not pay for water - a lie. It also states that people in Northern Ireland do not pay as much in taxes as people do in Britain. It continues to say that the RRI "could include water charges as well as the revenue from a reformed rating system". The decision to introduce water charges, in other words, had already been taken and was agreed by the UUP, DUP, SDLP and Sinn Fein. Even at a local level, the big four parties who dominate all the district councils accepted water charges. For example the Cookstown District Council Response to Review of Rating Policy Consultation Paper supported water charges. The working group established to produce the draft reply included councillors Glasgow (UUP), Grimes (SF), I McCrea (DUP), McGarvey (SDLP), McGlone (SDLP), Molloy (SF), Parke (IUP), and Wilson (UUP). The council-endorsed reply included: "There is general recognition that significant additional funding is required to upgrade the water provision infrastructure. Whilst water metering would encourage responsible water use it is also recognised that the cost of widespread meter installation would be prohibitive. The most practical means of water charging is probably a contribution based on the valuation of the property." Not one iota of opposition to water charges. In fact what they recommended is precisely what the Government is now implementing. The UUP A UUP document at the time stated "It is widely recognised that NI has the lowest household rates in the UK. Central government is no longer prepared to sustain subvention at current "Barnett" levels unless the Executive takes steps to address the rates imbalance with the rest of the United Kingdom. Water charging is the largely accepted way of doing so." In July 2002, then First Minister David Trimble stated "Will we say to local people that we will try to get the Treasury to pay for their services when they are not contributing as much as people in England, Scotland and Wales? Is that a fair approach to taxation and expenditure across the Kingdom? I think not... The rates might be increased or something else might increase" In a Westminster debate on 16 March 2005, David Burnside of the UUP supported water charges by metering. "Metering is an open subject in this debate. My personal view is that optional metering would be the fairest system. Provision could be made for metering to be possible in all new-build housing in Northern Ireland." The SDLP In April 2002, Minister for Finance Sean Farren was quoted as saying "We can be sure that any challenge will lead to strong pressure from the Treasury that we should pay our own way more fully. This will mean looking hard at the rates and at the financing of our water and sewerage services. But we must be under no illusions. As private citizens we pay considerably less in local taxes than people do in England. While it may be unpalatable, we may also have to accept that if we want better public services here we will have to pay more for them". The idea that people in Northern Ireland are not paying enough taxes is a lie which was said by the politicians in Stormont and is now being repeated by direct-rule Minister Spellar today. Sinn Fein In their reply to the Review of Rating Policy Consultation document Sinn Fein state they are in favour of "the establishment of a self-financing Public Water Corporation or alternatively through the creation of an independent non-profit distributing entity (similar to Welsh Water)". Self-financing
in reality means the introduction of water charges. The experience of
Welsh Water shows how the water service has essentially been privatised
through the back door. The DUP In the March 2005 Westminster debate on the charges, Peter Robinson of the DUP called for water charges to be introduced over a five-year period! He said: "My colleagues and I have suggested that people should have a choice between basing the charge on the value of their home and opting for voluntary metering. During the talks process leading to the Government's paper on a comprehensive agreement, we sought to address the issue on the basis that I set out earlier. "Although the Government were not flexible on some aspects of our proposal, we were working towards an outcome that would have led to the Treasury agreeing to allow Northern Ireland to continue accessing the reinvestment and reform initiative borrowing facility while pegging the regional rate for the phasing-in period of the water charge... In addition, we sought to lengthen from three to five years the phasing in of water charging." Last December the DUP was negotiating how water charges could be implemented instead of taking a principled stand against water charges. The DUP has also produced a document entitled 'Water Charging'. On page 10 of this document they state "On the basis that the Regional Rate is being increased, a link to property values would seem to be the fairest way to determine the level of water charges." Non-payment For election purposes the parties are now claiming to oppose charges. But none of them support a real campaign to defeat the charge. None of them have backed the call for non-payment. None have said they will stand by those who refuse to pay. This is because if they were back in power they would carry on where they left off - with this charge or some other way of raising local taxes and with the same agenda of privatising public services. We need to build non-payment to defeat the unjust charge whether it is imposed by Westminster or by the local parties doing Westminster's bidding in a local Assembly. Building non-payment Water charges are due to come in next year. Most people can expect to pay between £400 - £700 a year. The charge will depend on the value of your house and will rise with house prices. Yet we already pay for water in our rates - and rates are due to go up as well. This unjustified tax can be beaten - but only by a campaign of mass non-payment like the campaign that defeated Thatcher's Poll Tax and the attempt by the southern government to bring in water charges in Dublin in the 1990s. The We Won't Pay Campaign has been established to organise non payment and is setting up local groups in communities which can sign people up to non-payment. The campaign has held meetings throughout Belfast, in Cookstown, Fermanagh, Newry, Derry, Dromore, Co. Tyrone, Omagh, Dromore Co. Down, Newtownabbey, Downpatrick and other areas. At all these meetings people have joined the campaign and signed our non-payment pledge. The campaign is receiving an excellent response. There is a clear understanding that if water charges are not beaten, we will face massive water bills in the future and that the service will eventually be privatised like in England and Wales. Spokespersons for the campaign have appeared on TV and radio programmes debating against Minister Spellar and winning support for non-payment. While on the Steven Nolan Show on Radio Ulster, we spoke in favour of non-payment. A live poll on the show resulted in a massive 85% saying they will refuse to pay water charges. The campaign has also hit the streets, collecting signatures for our non-payment pledge. The key task is to now build a mass membership in all estates, towns and cities. Vote for the Socialist Party candidates who are all organisers of the campaign. But don't just leave it at that - join the campaign and help build a We Won't Pay group in your area. Joe Higgins & Clare Daly say "Don't Pay!" In September 2003, Socialist Party TD for Dublin West, Joe Higgins, and Dublin North Socialist Party councillor, Clare Daly, went to prison for a month for organising protests against the imposition of bin charges in Dublin. Joe and Clare have given their full backing to the We Won't Pay campaign: "During the 90s we helped organise the non payment campaign that defeated the southern government's attempt to bring in water charges. If people in the north stick together the water charges can be defeated. "We have been able to use our elected positions to help build opposition to such unjust taxes. We are urging a vote for the Socialist Party candidates in Enniskillen, Cookstown and Belfast so that they can do the same." We can't afford to pay more The New Labour Ministers lecture us about not paying our way. They justify rate increases and water charges by saying we pay less in taxes than people in England, Scotland and Wales. When the Assembly was up and running, the four main local parties did the same. They forget two things. Firstly that people across the water pay too much in Council Tax and in hefty charges to private water companies. And secondly that we have lower wages and higher prices for essentials. Some of the facts our New Labour overlords choose to ignore - 185,000 households containing over 500,000 people are living below the poverty line. The poverty line is measured by two yardsticks - low income and having to go without necessities such as heating and electricity. - Wages here are at least 25% lower than in Britain as a whole while the prices of essentials are much higher. - Seven of the 10 lowest paid areas of the UK are in Northern Ireland. - More than a third of all children (37.1%) grow up in poor households. - Nearly 14% of all households, excluding pensioner households, have no adult who is employed and earning wages. - Social security benefits now account for 23% of total household income - this has risen from 21% three years ago thanks to New Labour policies. - We are officially "one of the most unequal societies in the world" (recent Economic and Social Research Council report). The richest 40% of households possess 67% of total household income while the poorest 40% have 17% of total income. Women are disproportionately affected by the poverty levels because: - Wages for women remain some 20% lower than for men. -
29% of women live in poor households as opposed to 25%
of men. - Early years state child care provision is almost non-existent. The Socialist Party demands - The withdrawal of water charges. - No privatisation of the water service. - A water and sewerage service that is adequately funded, publicly owned and run democratically by an elected Board with majority representation for water service workers and from other trade unionists and from the communities. Rather than wayer charges we need an emergency programme to tackle poverty in Northern Ireland. Measures that should be taken should include: -
The raising of the minimum wage to £6 an hour with no exemptions,
as a step to the European Decency level of £8 an hour. |