Labour Westport Town Councillor Keith Martin has condemned remarks made by the Environment Minister John Gormley in which the minister said that the reintroduction of domestic water charges was inevitable.
According to Cllr Martin Minister Gormley’s remarks “will cause alarm among hard-pressed householders who are already under the financial cosh”.
“If the reintroduction of water charges is inevitable, it is only because Fianna Fail and John Gormley’s Greens are in office,” Cllr Martin asserted. “Domestic water charges were scrapped by the Labour Party in 1997 and Labour have consistently opposed their reintroduction ever since.
“I have no doubt that Minister Gormley’s remarks will reverberate around the country and that it will come up at local level as council election candidates go knocking on doors. Labour councillors and candidates will be assuring voters that at national and at local level, we will resist, come what may, the reintroduction of domestic water charges.
“Labour believes that everyone has the right to free, clean, safe drinking water.”
