Guthanna picket 'Water Charges' conference

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday September 19, 2011 14:18 by Guthanna Admin. - Guthanna guthanna.southarmagh at gmail dot com

A picket was recently held by the political discussion group Guthanna at a conference which had been organised to discuss the implementation of water charges

Included in the photograph are Cllr Davy Hyland, former MLA & Cllr Pat McNamee, former Cllr Jim McAllister and Laura Duffy.

The political discussion group Guthanna picketed a 'Water Charges' conference on Saturday 10th September at the Carrickdale Hotel on the Louth/Armagh border. The little publicised conference was organised to discuss the implementation and management of water charges in the south of Ireland and elsewhere. Although the larger parties in the north have verbally indicated their opposition to water charges there was no representation at the conference by northern political parties.

The Guthanna group went to the event to advise the conference that most people were opposed to the concept of being charged for the most basic necessity of life, WATER. 'Don't Bleed us Dry, Oppose Water Charges' was the slogan of the Guthanna protest. The protest group entered the conference for a short period to express opposition to water charges. There were more protestors than councillors in attendance, which shows a scandalous lack of concern among councillors. Protestors expressed their opposition in a dignified way before leaving the conference.

A Guthanna spokesperson observed that people believe that government are continuing to prepare for the implementation and management of water charges without fully informing the public about their aims. The spokesperson continued by asking "when they have us paying for water, will we be charged for breathing air next"?