Number Of TDs Pledge To Support Water Guarantee

A number of TDs have signed up to the SIPTU/TEEU Water Guarantee, which commits them to work for a referendum to safeguard public water services from the threat of privatisation if they are elected to the next Dáil.

According to the union, Sinn Féin and Social Democrat TDs have pledged their full support to the Water Guarantee, along with individual TDs from Labour, Fianna Fáil and the Anti-Austerity Alliance and Independents Clare Daly, Thomas Pringle and Seamus Healy.

SIPTU Public Administration and Communities Division Organiser, John King, said: "SIPTU and TEEU members in the Local Authority Water Services launched the Water Guarantee with a public protest outside Leinster House on 19th January. Since then 41 TDs and many other politicians have signed the pledge that they will work for a referendum to protect public water services.

"The pledge also commits them to seeking the re-designation of Irish Water as a non-commercial state agency as we believe this would demonstrate a recognition and commitment by the Irish State to the provision of water as a human right and not as a commodity sold for profit."

SIPTU Campaigns and Equality National Organiser, Karan O'Loughlin, added: "The current trajectory of Irish Water represents creeping privatisation by the back door. Along with our colleagues in the broader trade union movement, we asked politicians to commit to give public water services constitutional protection by the holding of a referendum worded as follows:

"The State shall be solely responsible for the direct provision, including transmission, treatment, management and operation of the public water and sanitation supply in the public interest and within the public service. The State shall treat water as an essential resource in the interests of the common good and shall by direct public employment provide for the provision of all water services for the people."

(MH/LM)