LETTER: Water charges will remain a troubling political albatross

SIR – Uncanny Enda Kenny has said, possibly in a fit of pique and sour-grapes combined, that the Irish citizens will be compelled to pay the dodgy extra water tax because of some possibly imagined EU directive. So, there we have it – Irish water for Irish people is subject to paying for it on the orders of faceless bureaucrats in Brussels and Berlin.

What our lame-duck Taoiseach, along with mealy-mouthed Micheál Martin of Fianna Fáil, and strutty Gerry Adams of SF, do not realise is that their very existence in government, and indeed politics, depends on carrying out the will of the Irish people; which in this instance is primarily not to introduce an extra EU tax for water already being paid for through existing revenue taken. Not mentioning Brendan Howlin with the other ‘leaders’ here is a deliberate mistake linked to the irrelevance of the Labour Party.

If we had a ‘water referendum’ as to whether we’d leave the EU or cravenly cave in to weak government and the bullyboy tactics of the EU, the electorate could well teach Europe an overdue lesson in democracy, by slinging our hook. But here’s the thing: ironically, we cannot have another referendum which in any way challenges or takes on EU rules and regulations, as we signed away this sovereign right in one of the previous referendums which we made to vote on again until we got the ‘right’ result in one of double-take ballots. So, there is no more decision-making to be arrived at by the Irish people,for the Irish people, when it comes to dealing with the current EU dictatorship.

Does anyone really believe Britain could be forced twice – as we were – to re-run their own referendum if they soon vote to leave the EU? The British people are made of sterner stuff, as former despots of Europe were taught, when push came to shove, in other times.

Only our rivers run free, they used to say, but now only after the coffers of the EU has had its continental thirst quenched before Irish citizens get a sniff at our own clean water with taxes already paid for the service. By the way, lest we forget, by all historical and geographical fact, we are not even ‘in’ Europe, but let’s not have a song and dance about that.

Just let us put ourselves first on the issue of water - folk cannot afford another tax to begin with and this troubling political albatross has the potential to bring down every and any government which tries to introduce such an unacceptable measure.

Robert Sullivan,

Bantry.