Someone (it was Bill Maher, actually) once said that “The problem is that the people with the most ridiculous ideas are always the people who are most certain of them.”
A day after a patronizing and decidedly backwards Budget was unleashed on Ireland, Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar has today hinted that water charges may be back from the dead sooner, rather than later, unless the Government makes a decision.
Popular and political pressure forced the charges to be ‘suspended’ for a period of nine months, supposedly while yet another quango looks how the bigger quango that is Irish Water can be financed in novel ways. In reality though, nobody expects the charges to ever be back, unless the government of the time is in the mood to commit seppuku.
Speaking on the radio earlier today, Mr. Varadkar said “Water charges have been suspended and that suspension ends next spring, and in the absence of any policy change, or decision by the Dail otherwise, water charges come back.”