THOUSANDS of people took to the streets across Ireland on Saturday in protest against austerity-driven charges for water.

Trade unionists and opposition politicians led the largest rally, in central Dublin, to demand that publicly owned Irish Water scrap the fees for previously free tap water.

The Right2Water campaign is made up of political parties, six major trade unions and community groups.

Trade unions in Northern Ireland have also given their support.

The charges would force households to pay for 80 per cent of Ireland’s water bill, even though 90 per cent of the supply is used by industry and agriculture.

Taoiseach (PM) Enda Kenny’s Fine Gael government is pushing ahead with the charges despite the mass opposition.

Unite union and Right2Water spokesman Brendan Ogle denounced the “gombeen (spiv) parties” of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour who have ruled the country since independence.

Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) anti-sectarian campaign Trademark worker Dr Stephen Nolan hit out at Tanaiste (deputy PM) Joan Burton, who last week dismissed Right2Water’s arguments as “redundant.”

He said: “She better get used to that word because that’s what she will be in a few weeks, redundant.

“Our argument is not redundant because that debt [from the country’s bank bailout] is still with us even though it’s not our debt — €60 billion (£45bn) of a stake, the last €5bn (£3.8bn) of which won’t be paid until 2053, by our grandchildren.”

Sinn Fein deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald, whose party opposes the charges, warned the government it was wrong it if thought it had got away with “water charges, [a] family home tax and cutbacks.”

“Water is a human right,” Ms McDonald declared, promising that any future Sinn Fein-led coalition government would “abolish water charges for good and for all.”

At a demonstration in Dundalk, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said: “Sinn Fein stopped the imposition of water charges in the North and in government in this state we will scrap them here also. “Fine Gael and Labour continue to underestimate the level of public anger over this issue,” he said. He also vowed to dismantle Irish Water and replace it with “a new model of governance, funding and delivery that is accountable” to parliament