The ruling elite are in a panic over water charges. The Denis O’Brien-owned Irish Independent is running repeated stories about how we must keep the charges. Meanwhile over on Newstalk – a radio station also owned by Denis O’Brien – George Hook pontificates about why we must keep the charges.

The reason for the panic is that over 100 TDs were elected to Dail Eireann on a promise to abolish water charges. In the case of Fianna Fail, this would be for five years.

We can defeat the water charges – but only if we do not sit back and wait for the parliamentary manoeuvres.

We know from recent history that promises made in elections can easily be broken afterwards. This is why we need to re-double our efforts in a last push to get rid of them.

There are two things we can do:

• STEP UP THE BOYCOTT: There are many people who were intimidated by Irish Water into paying. Now they are having second thoughts and polls indicate that they are thinking of joining the non-payers. We should encourage these people to stop paying. Remind them that the surest way not to lose money on Irish Water, is not to give it to them in the first place.
• JOIN THE PROTESTS: We need to build big protests that focus on Dail Eireann. The first of these is this Thursday at 1pm. The purpose of this protest is to remind the TDs of their promises and to demand that they move quickly to bring in legislation to abolish the charges.

The combination of a mass boycott and real pressure on TDs can end these hated charges. Let’s go for it.