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Gerry Breen Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland
keep the charge
Ex-Lord Mayor says he'd crowdfund court battle for water refunds
Any attempt to scrap charges but not give refunds would be met with “huge protest” Gerry Breen says.
A FORMER FINE Gael councillor and Lord Mayor of Dublin has said there’d be “huge protest” in the event that any incoming government scraps water charges and refuses to give refunds.
Gerry Breen, who served as lord mayor in 2010-2011, took to Liveline in the wake of speculation about water charges to say he would launch a legal action in the event that the fees were scrapped and bills weren’t repaid.
It followed Simon Coveney’s comments that the party would be “willing to talk about water” and Fianna Fáil’s reiteration that they didn’t plan to give refunds in the event that charges were suspended.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie about his mooted legal challenge, he said “any attempt to do that would be met very strongly”.
The former councillor said he was sure he’d have huge support for the case, adding that he expected current councillors would back him up.
People who wanted to scrap Irish Water and the charging regime simply wanted to “throw out the rule book,” Breen insisted.
Top of the agenda
The issue of water has been back in the spotlight this week, in the wake of Coveney’s comments (he apologised for making them in a meeting with his party colleagues later in the week).
Speaking on Wednesday, Enda Kenny insisted that people should continue to pay their bills, telling reporters he thought it would be “a seriously costly and seriously historic mistake to move away from having a single national utility”.
But Fianna Fáil challenged the legitimacy of that stance – with Dara Calleary pointing out that the majority of TDs in the 32nd Dáil now want to abolish water charges.
“We were very clear during the campaign that we would abolish Irish Water, that we would suspend water charges for five years [and] would not give refunds,” Calleary insisted.
Gerry Adams, in a statement on Thursday, insisted the charge must be abolished, while the AAA-PBP have said they will vigorously pursue the issue in the coming days.
It comes as the leaders of the two largest parties begin the first efforts to form a government in the wake of last Friday’s election.
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