© TheJournal.ie
Saturday's street demonstrations across Ireland organized by the Right2Water campaign are some of the largest since 2008 when the country started raising taxes and cutting spending amid a deepening financial crisis. European Union and International Monetary Fund experts who oversaw Ireland's 2010 bailout recommended that Ireland create a water utility charge to help regain control of budget deficits.
The water charges introduced Oct. 1 are expected to cost a typical household 278 euros ($350) annually. Tens of thousands are refusing to pay.
Ireland stopped relying on EU-IMF loans in 2013 and has ended austerity in its 2015 budget.
. . . to what transpired in Detroit not long ago.
The LOGICAL position should be the same, i.e., people should be allowed to procure water from natural sources (e.g., rainwater, a local stream or river, etc.) at no charge and without gov't fees or taxes. However, there is no "right" to free or untaxed water if it is obtained, purified, treated, and transported/delivered to the users by others, whether by a private water utility or via a gov't entity.
Of course, many things that are protested by public mobs and also things decided by gov't agencies and/or the legal system frequently have no relationship whatsoever with logic.