Anti Austerity Alliance TD's have issued a fresh call for the next government to abolish water charges.

Ruth Coppinger, Paul Murphy, and Mick Barry said it is now critical that all sections of the Anti Water Charges Movement join the boycott.

In statement they said: "The only reason that the abolition of water charges is top of the political agenda today is because of the mass mobilization of ordinary people over the last 18 months and the massive and unprecedented boycott of this charge which was spearheaded by the principled Left in the movement.

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"In particular the Anti Austerity Alliance is proud of its role in being the first political force which outlined how critical this mass Boycott was to forcing abolition on the establishment.

"If 90% of householders had – even reluctantly and resentfully – paid the water tax, it would not be an issue that Fianna Fail felt pressurised to take up.

"However, Fine Gael and the media establishment are attempting to set their face against what clearly a massive number of people voted for in the General Election in relation to the water charges.

"There needs now to be a united call for a total boycott. Not only the 750,000 households currently refusing to pay would welcome this, but also the hundreds of thousands who felt pressured to make some payment as a result of the tactics of government and Irish Water."

(CD/JP)