MOSCOW (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova — The arrest of political activists in Ireland who campaigned against water fees in Dublin, is an attempt to criminalize an act of protest, a Socialist member of the Irish Parliament told Sputnik news agency Wednesday.
"This was an attempt to damage the Anti-Austerity Alliance and the anti-water charges movement. It is an attempt to criminalize the act of protest and to scare people from taking part in further protests,” TD Joe Higgins told Sputnik
The arrests were made in connection with an incident during a November protest, when a crowd of campaigners surrounded the car of a government minister, preventing her from moving for two hours.
"The Anti-Austerity Alliance is playing an important role in the anti-water charges campaign, the biggest anti-austerity movement, in Ireland in recent years. It is not an accident that our public representatives for Tallaght were targeted,” Higgins said adding that since then there have been eight other arrests including a 16 year old and a 14 year old who attended the protests.
“A major boycott will cause a political crisis for the government so they will go all-out to try damage the water charges movement between now and then,” Higgins told Sputnik.
In November 2014, the Irish government passed a new water charges bill, as part of austerity measures toward paying the $80 billion Irish bailout to the International Monetary Fund. The new fees will range from up to $200 a year for single people and up to $325 for families, according to government statistics.
Campaigners call the government’s policy double taxation as Irish citizens already pay taxes to maintain municipal water systems
