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SINN FÉIN’S OFFICES on the Andersonstown Road in West Belfast have been targeted in an arson attack in the early hours of the morning.
The PSNI said a fire was reported at around 4.50am.
Police attended the scene along with the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, who extinguished the blaze.
Damage was caused to a door at the rear of the building, and to fascia boarding. Paint was also thrown at a front window of the building.
There was no damage reported to the inside of the building.
Sinn Féin MP Paul Maskey has condemned the attack.
“Last night’s disgraceful arson attack on our Connolly House office must be condemned by all. This was an attack on the democratic process,” Maskey said.
“Clearly, the people behind this are intent on trying to disrupt the services we provide to all the public,” he said.
“We have not yet been able to assess the extent of the damage but Sinn Féin will continue to provide a first-class service to the people of West Belfast whom we are proud to represent.”
The PSNI is appealing for witnesses to the incident to come forward.
“This is being treated as arson and I am appealing to anyone who was in the area around this time and noticed any suspicious activity, or anyone who was information who could assist our investigation to contact us on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 162 of 20/08/18,” PSNI Inspector McCullough said.
Alternatively, information can be provided anonymously to UK Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
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Abolish the charge.
Abolish the sham billing company.
Apologies to the people.
Call an election.
apologies accepted!
It’s the bonus scheme that’s the worst part
Touché gagsy
The Irish Water ship is holed at this stage.
What is more in Ireland, where people tend to go along with the crowd, they now see that it is acceptable to give two fingers on this to the powers that be. It is snowballing as people line out with the demo’s.
Irish Water was about asset stripping of the country for crony gain and to be sold cheap at great eventual cost to us all.
It was one stroke too far, people put up with it for non-stop for decades though. Me, included.
This just happened to be the proverbial straw.
Apologies not enough…if they only charged a euro a year it won’t matter. These bast#rd$ will hike the price once the dust settles on this and as for legislation to call for a referendum if IW was ever to be privatised?… Well as we know politicians can pi$$ about with legislation at their whim. I don’t believe a word coming out of this government… Abolish it…pure and simple.
I’m looking forward to it being abolished so all the costs can be passed back onto the middle class. A victory for The People™
i smell a mini budget,,petrol and disel gonna get whacked on the plus side the Labour party will die with Irish water
Abolish this Government!!!!!
Search – are you employing the rich don’t pay tax in this country – is there a secret out there we are not picking up on ?
*implying …
If only the government had spent the money that it wasted setting up IW on fixing the leaking pipes.
But that would only be common sense!
Sadly it wasn’t and indeed still isn’t about fixing the pipes…the money will be used to pay off debts that have nothing to do with the people being billed!!
Are you sure about that? Just where did the 2/3 of the debt that has nothing to do with the bank bailout come from then?
the banks were responsable for circa €100 billion of it, and still haven’t disclosed their full losses, according to experts, whom i believe. thats half. why were shareholders paid off in addition for their failed investments? rte stars, ireland rugby team members etc…
What is the point of meters if there are 2 flat rates?
for when the real charges come in, for the rest of our days, if they get their way…
Search Eagle
From ministers over inflated salaries
From mis managed quangos
From un vouched expenses
From business class fights around the world
From years of give away budgets by fine Fáil which Fine Gael complained weren’t giving enough
From bench marking
From iPads for everyone
From a generous social welfare system
From tax breaks for multi national companies.
Can’t think of anymore at the minute but feel free to ad to the list
Philip Boucher-Hayes, Enough said.
“he banks were responsable for circa €100 billion of it”
You’re €35 billion euro off, but okay.
“What is the point of meters if there are 2 flat rates?”
I agree. It’s a pity the government cowardly backed down and made the meters redundant.
@Thomas
Hey, I’m not disagreeing! I would love to see ministers salaries slashed. I would love to see our luxury welfare system cut down to measure. I would love to see reform of the public sector and some of the world-beating wages brought into line with what we can actually afford. I would delight in seeing generous tax breaks and corporate welfare rolled back, I think we desperately need to see a reduction in current spending and a greater % of our expenditure directed at the capital side where we’ll actually see a return on it and I would dearly love to see the end of bonanza politics.
But it won’t happen. Evidence: Sinn Fein are the most popular party according to recent polls, and they the antithesis of all of that. They WANT the luxury welfare system to be even more generous. They WANT to roll back public service wage reductions. They, along with the AAA are the biggest populist, bonanza politicians out there and it won’t be long before everyone else gets on the merry-go-round. The fact is that a substantial amount of people want to go back to the FF years.
i already stated that the banks have grossly under declared their losses, which are still covered..
and whats going on with freedom of info non complient NAMA?
Search while it always nice to have English people on here with their opinions – let me point out to you that this is Ireland !
For a deeper understanding of the hospitality of the Irish might I suggest a reading of Frank O’Connor’s ….. “Guests of the Nation !”
But besides all that the government also added 30 million in Prom notes – does that not bring it up to 100 billion – either way Michael Noonan declared that illegal so he did so he did so we won’t have to write them off when we get a New Government !
The time has come and gone for this Government, focus now needs to be on the 10 Dec, with the flat charges introduced the water fairy’s are temporally made redundant, but on high alert, now we need to make this government permanently redundant. See ye all on the 10th.
Wonder how long the new charges will take to pay off the ridiculous debt already racked up on the money grab? Call an election NOW!!
the government voted to convert the illegal prom note into soverign debt, locked in now, and signed in by the dwarf in the park. he flew home from holiday in italy to do so, in a big hurry Dermot..
Election Now
The next General Election is 2016.
Thats what you think.
John that’s the longest the present government can serve till.Quite a few backbenchers getting nervous,they unlike Enda and Joan are not in line for any pensions.They know Irish water will destroy their reelection chances.
You know them personally Norman?
Are you sure that said nervous backbenchers would be keen on having a general election now?
Surely that wouldn’t make much sense.
If I have to listen to the weary drone of I-phone Joan day after day for much longer I will do myself in..
Sick of this F***ing around. Scrap the charge already and stop burning money.
But but but…. How will they pay off those Shane Ross all but named this afternoon.Like yer one from BoI and yer man who nobody in the DoE has ever actually heard of.
This thing is an other tribunal in the making costing millions more. Just kill IW now FFS.
” Scrap the charge already and stop burning money.”
How do you suggest we fill the multi billion euro hole in the budget?
Oh I don’t know. Maybe through direct centralised taxation as has always been done. By not setting up a ‘jobs for the boys’ quango with the aim of eventualy breaking it up and selling off the profitable parts , not even to the highest bidder,but to a pre arranged one.
The shills were a bit slow getting back from FG HQ this evening I see. Tell me has Enda got the Fuhrerbunker together yet ? Did you get a look at where the final days of FG will play out ?? Hope you had a good look because they will throw you under the bus the way they have the rest of us pretty soon.
Regardless of if the charge is right or wrong people won’t stand for this and will not pay. IW is a bad investment.
Search eagle, too many people have their own budget hole to worry about first, if we can’t look after ourselves and our families, we can’t contribute to society.
“Oh I don’t know. Maybe through direct centralised taxation as has always been done.”
So tax the middle classes again. Okay.
“By not setting up a ‘jobs for the boys’ quango with the aim of eventualy breaking it up and selling off the profitable parts , not even to the highest bidder,but to a pre arranged one.”
Irish Water isn’t a quango.
Do you have any proof of this claim? What resources have been sold off in the last few years out of interest?
I pay my taxes as well and quite possibly a higher % of my wage goes towards government than ‘middle classes’ pay due to the USC ect.Are you really suggesting that only those on the dole are unwilling to support IW ? As for it being a quango ? It exactly fits the defination of one : a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation.In fact one of the original quango’s set up in the UK was their Water Services Authority which was eventually carved up and sold off.
It’a a semi-state.
“I pay my taxes as well and quite possibly a higher % of my wage goes towards government than ‘middle classes’ pay due to the USC ect.”
It’s rude to ask what you earn, but if you earn less than the average industrial wage, you can comfortably assume that your direct tax burden is nowhere NEAR what someone earning above that pays.
Would CIE, ESB, An Post, Bord Na Mona, Coillte also qualify as Quangos?
If so, would you like to see them all shut?
Eagle. Not all tax is paid at source as income tax.The VAT and car tax ect. I pay eats a greater precentage of my wages than it does yours.They are at a flat rate across the board.Trust me at the end of the day when ALL tax is taken into account a greater % of what I get at the end of the month ends up in government hands than someone in the ‘middle class’. Stop the divide and conquer cr*p. We get enough directly from government with out their minions selling it aswell.
You’re missing the real point search eagle, goes to show what a rip off IW was that they could drop the prices almost at a whim in a desperate attempt to woo the public, it was a profit making machine from the very get go and because the people took all the other austerity measures introduced by the current and previous governments with barely a whimper they thought that they could introduce rip off water charges like taking candy from a baby.
It took awhile but the Irish people eventually said enough is enough and are refusing to roll over, they recognised that it was a scam from a scamming government right from its very introduction, thats what has the people so angry and the vast majority are not going to back down,but there is no way that these shysters are going to swallow their pride and back down which will be catastrophic for them in the next general election.
Ordinary people have been stripped to the bone in the name of our nations recovery. It’s criminal that I had to pay €710 in road tax just to keep a 9 year old car on the road legally while 142 BMW guy up the road pays €200. This government detest common people and expect us to pay entirely for the bail out in order to allow “risk takers and wealth creators” get on with the business of fixing the economy. BS. The people have risen on the issue of water charges and they won’t buy into the concept. It stinks.
What is the point of giving every household a €100 water grant? Imagine the cost of setting this up.
This is obviously something they will take back in next budget.
Mark I want variable mortgage interest rate copped and legislated for by this government we then have a chance to live and eat.
because they want to have ppl sign their contract with IW, as a consent to be responsable for these bills, who the public wised up to. once contract is signed, you are consenting to all further bills in future, no matter how far they spiral upwards. thats what you get for your own €100 back…
if you pay the bill without signing their contract, you don’t get the €100 euro “discount”. thats what the €100 is for, not paying their insidious bill. says all you need to know, right there..
Enda and Co are not in charge, their just middle management.and this country is on strike!! And there’s f##k all that he can do about it, unless we the public let him!
Middle management is right bob! The bosses in Germany wont allow a general election until the budget is done. We need to burn the bonds and ignore the troika like Iceland. We cant afford it and its not our debt. Certainly isn’t our children’s debt. Without that there would be no need for water and property taxes. Enda is a pure puppet to these people, he needs to grow a pair and protect the people.
Hee – haw hee – haw. ……will I ever reach that carrot dangling in front of me……
They said they listened to the people,if so they completely ignored us.they think if they repeat the same waffle over and over again,that we will swallow it.Do not be fooled,do not sign up to this.Take to the streets on the 10th because you have just witnessed how quickly this government can do a u turn
Bullying tactics after bullying tactics. But it is still not working. They think they can speak and us quislings will follow. ..not any more
I don’t think the end goal should be abolition anymore. With FG’s and Labour’s refusal to listen, refusal to answer questions and today just simply walking out of the Dáil before anyone could even ask a question, the end goal here needs to be a General Election. This government is no longer viable in my eyes. They’ve been giving the middle finger to the public the last few months and even if the water charges went I doubt there’s very much public confidence left in them. They’ve completely blown it with this whole fiasco.
Who’s the alternative?
A class of primary school children would actually be preferable to these egomaniac cretins
Water load of boIIocks! Wasted money for something which is now inevitably going to be abandoned!
Just to compare between another black hole of Irish taxpayer money-
Cost of e-voting machines = 54 million euro
Cost of Irish Water (setting up and taking into account running costs over the next two years) = 1.9 billion euro.
Courtesy of the Irish Times….
Such a sarcastic headline, Yes it is ‘inevitable’ that we feel,this damage limitation measure is insulting to us and not nearly enough
agreed,and did you notice the headline for when the details were released, bias or what?
What another waste of tax payers money they will now have to pay several people to process the paperwork for the 100 back pay when it could just be subtracted at the start.
Don’t pay its a honey trap.
It is our Duty to stop these parasites from ransacking this country and turning it over to the profiteers. If we let these people get away with this theft of our resources our children and future generations will curse us (and rightly so).
Tell the Government enough is enough Do not pay not even one cent to Irish Water it is a criminal quango that serves no useful purpose. The won’t fix one pipe, not one leak, its just a money maker for the establishment and their cronies.
Still not fcukin paying Edna.. you can go and p*ss off. I’ve had enough
If we don’t stand for something we’ll fall for anything (like this crock that their offering)
It a hook to reel us in,
Be careful of governments bearing gifts.
Lets make the 10th “the day ireland stopped”..at dail eireann
Really hope people dont fall for this…stay strong and they can’t beat us no matter how much bullying they try or bribing they can afford
Never has so much been spent on so few for so little.
In rented accommodation 3 small kids I’m the sole earner on a modest wage living hand to mouth week to week this announcement is just a smack in the face bring on the tenth
I play a drinking game called “too little too late”. Every time I read a comment saying “too little too late,” I have a shot of flouridated tap water. It doesn’t get me drunk obviously but at least I’m well hydrated and my teeth are fabulous.
What part of ‘we won’t pay’ does the government not understand ?
Don’t fall for it. They’ll suck you in and then spit you out. They are so far removed from the national mood. God help this country
So if we all stand firm and don’t pay this charge when the bills come out then what will happen to the company IW? I’m not asking it out of concern for this parasitical company but more curiosity. Will the company fold or collapse without funding?
The government will have to fund it instead. they won’t be able to raise money through loans so we will get tax hikes. We all end up poorer.
“they won’t be able to raise money through loans so we will get tax hikes. We all end up poorer.”
Correction: the same people who pay all the taxes already will end up poorer. I suspect the intersection between that set of people and those protesting the water charges is uncomfortably small.
Search – I marched in Galway against water charges – I was joined by a civil servant, an engineer , a driver and someone who works in an office – all of us are taxpayers and we pay Enda’s wages – so let’s stop this crap about only the unemployed are against water charges !
Well said David. My middle class parents are vehemently opposed to it as well. They might pay more but realise it is completely unfair on the less well-off. If people didn’t have this attitude of “well this government suits me, screw everyone else” the country wouldn’t be in this state.
What annoys me the most about today was that is plain to see the government were looking to pull as much cash as possible from the already stretched people of Ireland. They had this much room to manoeuvre in the first place. That to me is a bigger insult than the actual charge itself. There is not a trustworthy bunch to vote for in this country now. Its a joke!
It has to be stopped before a boycott. The fg/ labour backbenchers offices should be the next target of peaceful protests. I feel here is where this government can break. Relentless protest at the backbenchers could reap rewards. Burton kenny and the likes will cling on as much as the can, but the squeaky bums at the back of could bolt.
I’m not paying but I would have more respect for the govt if it held it’s ground and didn’t blink first . The game is up they have shown themselves to be weak so now the protesters will wipe their feet on Iw
How dare they turn unwilling landlords into Bailiffs for Irish Water. Just when I thought they couldn’t make me any angrier!
Did anyone notice Kelly’s change in tone when announcing penalties
I think the penny dropped that he had just been fed to the lions.Priceless.
Keep charging boys, we’re half way up the hill!! :-D
Yes Minister
They can make all the concessions they want, but unless they address and deal with the blatant cronyism and corruption inherent in the whole thing then I won’t be paying.
Who is Coleman Sheehy and why is he on the board?
I’m amazed how they cut so much money from social welfare budget over the past few years and can now give every home in the country 100euro
From the same budget.. 2million homes that’s one hell of a bribe! Get them out
This is the end for this Government,its all they will be remembered for come an election.
Funny how the treat of a bomb or a bullet to the head finally persuaded Alan Kelly to see the light. .
See the light?they didn’t abolish the charges.Several hundred thousand did not March for lower charges.
So are you advocating that?
For all intent and purposes the Government might as well have abolished IW, however they did not, pride comes before a fall.
And it’s no, nay, never, no nay never, no more…
Wonder what Enda will be saying to his buddy Denis O Brien about all those meters he is going to be stuck with……..roll on Dec 10th and then the demise of this lying govt….Funny no mention of increases in taxes as threatened by Kenny a couple of weeks back and while i am at it what exactly are the staff doing in Irish Water and the €750m that Hogan shovelled into it to set this quango up were has that gone…As i dont see any fevered road works with new pipes been laid i see plenty of pools of water on the roads around me as the pipes that burst last year and the year before as temperatures drop have started to burst and leak again…
and he has to report to the Troika as ell – they are in town as well even though they longer have anything to do with the place ….
An interesting point about the Troika and the original group who rolled into Ireland – It’s leader got shot in the face in America and he also said it was wrong what was done to the Irish and End and co. have avoided all of that ==Why Enda ? Why you little scut you? Why ?
Reopen spike island and put Kenny and his cohorts on it For 10 years at the least ……
What is this Burma now?
Snipe and carp all you like, malignant mole, you are only making a fool of yourself.
What?
I just don’t like the idea of locking up democratically elected representatives because you don’t like the decisions they have made.
On a side note, thank you. I think I might change my twitter handle to malignantmole – that’s brilliant.
Alan Kelly looked like a man walking along the beach looking at the waves gently lapping at the shore – and blissfully unaware of the enormous tsunami just over the horizon heading towards him.
Ok.
FF and FG in coalition – is that still a runner?
I’m veering towards a thaw between FF and SF but would be happiest to see Martin end his political career before the next election. If FG continue to screw up 2016 commemorations, FF will only be able to join them once the bond holders have accepted delivery of their grandmothers.
Sadly – if nobody else can see it in this country, our national reputation is in tatters.
I’m sure ff are enjoying watching fg do all the hard work so that they can go back to reckless economics and populist politics- just like the good old days.
Enda and the boys are nothing but a criminal gang trying to screw us with this poxy water company so from now on I’m calling them leaky blinders.
Anybody hear George Lee on RTE Six One, does he work for Irish Water ? What a one sided contribution and opinion.
I was more concerned about the propaganda piece about the situation in Roscommon.Despite that situation already being sorted without the quango that is IW RTE still managed to make it seem that it was todays government anouncement that somehow fixed everything.
Irish Water isn’t a quango.
Do people know what a quango actually is.
Yes we do – Look at Paudie Coffey’s driver being on the board of Irish Water and then stepping down – why did he run ? = QUANGO
Can anybody put forward a viable alternative to water charges, other than leaving the water system in disrepair?
Preferably something that doesn’t involve leaving the EU.
Income tax.
Instead of setting up a behemoth to effectively take money off people, do it at source.
Setting up a bloated company with over paid employees and a ridiculous bonus structure and cost structure was not about saving money or improving the network.
It is being set up to be sold cheap.
The time for repairing the water system was years ago when there was a 3 billion tax surplus, not now when people are on the bread line. It’s called tough fcuking sh!t that they did’nt do it back then. Let them find another way to fund it.
Okay. Do you accept that the amount raised in income tax will have to be several times more than the amount being raised by the water charges in order to fund the initial repairs?
But that is what I am asking you Fran, should we just leave it like it is or if not, how do we fund it?
Eel if you want me to be honest I’d grudgingly say income tax like Seanie said, because I know this inevitably will be privatised no matter what BS the government says on the matter.
Where did the money from the usc go to,where did the money from 23 % vat go to,where did the money from the pension levy go to and where did the money from al the other levys go to,not to mention the household charge,and the lpt money,so please don’t tel me they didn’t have the money to fix the water system.
Fair enough Fran. But do you accept that the cost to each person in income tax will be much more than the cost to each person in water charges? The reason being that IW can borrow money to pay for the up front cost of repairs but the government cannot, at least without breaching EU rules.
Spot on Wilfried
Wilfried – bet not ask me, best look at the budget figures for a full answer. We are running a budget deficit so the simple answer is that it went to pay for all of the other services we receive – hospitals, roads, schools, foreign aid and yes, politicians expenses.
@Eel, I think Wilfried’s statement above shows how much additional money we’ve already given to the exchequer since the crisis began so I don’t agree tax increase should be substantial no. Either we’re being lied to as to where all this additional money has gone to or we have serious problem with politicians not able to adequately balance the books. It’s one or the other.
We have serious problems that we cannot balance the books. And yes, the politicians are not able to do it. I’m hoping somebody might be able to come up with a solution.
In al fairness Eel, it surely didn’t go to hospitals, schools and roads,foreign aid and politicians yes.
Wilfrie; all of that and much more. It is all on record.
No.
@SeanieRyan
“Income tax.”
And here we are. The real agenda behind the anti-water charge campaign, to get the government to dip its hands into the pockets of those who already pay everything, so that others may pay nothing. Once you earn over ~€30k, you’re charged some of the most punitive rates in Europe in the name of “fairness”. Well how is it “fair” that the same old section of society who’ve paid the brunt of extra charges over the last few years should be crippled further by paying for everyone else’s water as well?
“so please don’t tel me they didn’t have the money to fix the water system.”
They did but they wasted it buying off the votes of the usual special interest groups rather than investing it in infrastructure.
Search Eagle. I don’t think it is a case of an agenda, at least not for the majority of protesters. I just think the government have not explained the logic clearly enough, or at all really.
Abolish irish water let the whole infrastructure fall apart…. here’s hoping
There is now even more reason to protest as it is even more unfair and unjust as the poor will be expected to fork out the same as millionaires, totally regressive and no inducement to conserve water with water meters being installed merely to rot. Funny how FF are so opposed to the water charges since it was they who first mooted it years ago.
The most salient point here is this: the people of Ireland cannot and must not be fooled by the ostensible “reduction”. It is not a reduction, but a gateway to future avenues of unmitigated charging. For once, people, stand united, do not weaken when we’ve come this far. If together as a nation we refuse to pay there is nothing they can do. Think not only of yourself, bit of future generations. Water charges now, general election next.
10-12-14
Power to the people
Well said Liam.
Simple – increase income tax – reduce Social Welfare – then get rid of IW!
Try running a cut in social welfare past the AAA or the ULA or the IRA. I’ll think you’ll find it will not happen
So the 95% are going to be forced to agree with the 5%?
what in gods name would that do?
was that just pulled straight from your arse Powerabby?
What would William wallace do?
Not sure the issue of Water charges was much of an issue in 13th century scotland.
Bit redicilous and arrogant to make assumptions as to what a historical figures opinion on a water charge would be
Water water everywhere and not a voter to be hoodwinked
What a bunch of whine-@rse bandwagoners.
have your say