DALY CONDEMNS O’BRIEN’S FRONTMAN AT INM & SITESERV FOR “USING DESPERATE PLIGHT OF HAITIANS TO BENEFIT OWN WATER INTERESTS”

Responding to the advertisements for Haven which have emerged over the last week, claiming, “the people of Haiti would love to pay water charges”, ULA TD Clare Daly has slammed the campaign as a “cynical exercise in softening Irish attitudes to water charges by those with a vested interest”

Deputy Daly said, “The Haven Partnership was founded in 2008 and launched by Leslie Buckley, Denis O’Brien’s new frontman at Independent News & Media. Buckley is a shareholder in Millington, the winning bidder for Siteserv, with water meter installation interests in Ireland. Clearly Buckley’s philanthropy is now firmly linked with softening hard pressed Irish taxpayers for water charges, an exercise that will no doubt earn himself and O’Brien further massive profits.”

She continued, “were the people of Haiti surveyed about water charges payments? In Ireland homes & businesses already pay for water, homes via central taxation and businesses via water rates. Persons & companies with vested interests in water charges & privatisation should desist from the disingenuous abuse of Haiti to further their own profiteering motives in Ireland.”

She concluded, “The link is clear- Siteserv own Sierra, Sierra are one of the biggest contractors for Bord Gais, Bord Gais is getting control of Irish Water, while Buckley uses Haven to soften attitudes,as the government announces that a flat charge will be imposed for the first two years of domestic water charges.”

Daly said, “Householders have already made a stand in relation to the household tax, with hundreds of thousands involved in the boycott. The opposition to the imposition of water charges will be even greater, and no attempt to use the desperate plight of Haitians will undermine that opposition.”