The recent election has shown that people who are prepared to break the law over the issue of water charges can get elected, the Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy has said.
He told a group of water protesters outside the Dáil on Thursday that “if we win on the water charges, it is such a dangerous lesson for [those in power], because it shows that you can elect people who are pledged to break the law and to engage in civil disobedience.
“It shows the power of the people outside the Dáil can be more powerful than the power of the people inside the Dáil.”
He urged people who had already paid the water charges to cancel their direct debits and refuse to pay their bills.
He said he believed that non-payment of charges could rise to 60 or 70 per cent.
He said broadcaster Pat Kenny and other elements in the media who favoured water charges were "stirring it up. It is about their key ideological plank that there is no alternative".
Approximately 500 people turned out up outside Leinster House for the protest against water charges. The protest was organised in recent days.
Kelly criticised
Richard Boyd Barrett, who was nominated by the Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit (AAA-PBP) for taoiseach, also criticised Alan Kelly's pre-election interview with the Sunday Independent at the protest.
In the interview, the deputy Labour leader said that he was driven by personal ambition and that power was a drug.
“What a stunning, shocking admission of the motives of the people who run our political system,” he said.
“We stand in another tradition, which is about people power. We are not interested in pursuing power for itself.”
The protest was organised by the network for the non-payment of water charges.
Organiser Pat Wayne said that no elected government will be allowed to implement water charges.
“We will not pay water charges or any variation of them proposed by people in this house,” he said.
