The CPI is a member organisation of Right2Water and has a seat on its steering committee. The CPI 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 rules on state aid and assert the primacy of the “market” in all matters, therefore our demand was for a referendum to enshrine the public ownership of water in the constitution. The demand for a referendum on public ownership was eventually adopted by several of the major trade unions involved in Right2Water.
