The Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has further angered anti-water protesters by saying some of the anti-water charge protestors “don’t want to pay at all”. His comments were met with heckels and jeers at an event in Limerick today.
It is believed that around 80 anti-water charges protesters had gathered outside the Absolute Hotel in the city to voice their disapproval at the charges. He somehow managed to avoid the crowd by being driven down the wrong way of a one-way street and then being ushered into the hotel by gardaí. It is understood that areound a dozen uniformed officers provided a cordon around the entrance.
Mr Noonan was speaking at an earlier event, where he said that he did not think the revised water charges package to be announced on Wednesday would stop the protests. Mr Noonan told the event: “I don’t know, it is very hard to estimate, I mean some people are protesting because they don’t want to pay at all. “But we govern for the centre, we govern for the reasonable people, and reasonable people were upset by the way in which this was handled.”