The CPI was a founding member of Right2Water and has a seat on its steering committee. It participated in the Right2Water marches from 2014 onward in Dublin, Cork and elsewhere. While the focus of many parties and community groups involved in Right2Water was the proposed introduction of water charges and the resulting “double taxation”, the CPI argued that the principal aim of the government was to privatise the newly-established Irish Water entity to satisfy EU prohibitions on state aid, therefore the correct demand was to call for a referendum on enshrining the public ownership of water into the constitution. The demand for a referendum on public ownership was eventually adopted by several of the major trade unions involved in Right2Water.
