Right to protest and water
Senator Cullinane defends the largely peaceful water-charge demonstrations, rejects criticism of the rallies and calls instead for debate on water as a human right and opposition to privatisation.
It is interesting that a number of Government Senators this morning called for a debate on the right to protest. It is not surprising given that over the last two months we have seen three of the biggest protests that have taken place in this State in decades. In October we had the big rally in Dublin, when 100,000 people marched. On 1 November, we had the local and regional rallies, when people in towns, cities and villages came out in their own communities. Yesterday we had a really uplifting rally, with tens of thousands of people coming on a cold night in the middle of the week to march and engage in protest in a very peaceful and family-friendly way.
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On O'Connell Street there was havoc. Was that very peaceful?
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The Government says it is in listening mode. There was, yesterday, a small group of maybe a hundred protesters that had a different agenda and broke away from the Right2Water group. The Right2Water group would condemn the actions of anyone who did not engage in peaceful protest yesterday.
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I was at the protest outside Merrion Square. There were music and songs, but that is part of a rally. Rather than talking about the right to protest, what we need from the Government Senators is a call for a debate on the right to water. That is what people were protesting about. They see water as a human right. There are people within the Right2Water campaign who are against water charges. There are people who may not be associated with the Right2Water campaign who have a fear of the services being privatised. However, rather than calling for a debate on protests and whinging about tens of thousands of people marching against the Government, why do the Senators not listen and act? That is what they are here to do. If they did that, they would not have the unprecedented rallies.
Whatever about the numbers yesterday, RTE said 50,000-----
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-----and the protesters said 100,000 - it was the biggest midweek rally or mobilisation of people, possibly in decades, in this State. That says a lot about how people feel about this issue. People are energised, mobilised and determined not to allow this or any future Government to privatise our services. There was also a very real anti-water-charges sentiment. The majority of those on the protest want the charges scrapped.