The Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly has said the current Water charges are here to stay and no amount of organised protests will change that.
Mr Kelly made his comments after a weekend of protests which saw thousands of people line the streets of Dublin to voice their disapproval at the charges. Mr Kelly told The Evening Hearld: “There is utterly no question of a change of plan. Irish Water and water charges are here to stay as a means of providing investment and the development of national services fit for the 21st century,”. He went onto say “The government official acknowledged every citizen’s right to peaceful protest”, but Mr Kelly argued that the Government had already introduced “certainty and affordability” to the charges.
Although official political sources have heavily disagreed with protest organisers’ claims that a staggering 80,000 people attended the protest rallies, they have however conceded that the disapproval of water charges will now be major issue in the next general election.