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Everyone’s talking about…

As good at spin as this government is there is no way of out of the bad news story (for the coalition) that is the low payment of water charges in the first three months of this year. Perhaps we should have known the numbers wouldn’t be good when Irish Water spent weeks refusing to disclose the figures to AAA TD Paul Murphy.

The government tried to take the sting out of the figures dominating today’s news cycle by leaking them late last night. But make no mistake, plenty of people are going to be talking about the fact that just 43 per cent of the 1.5 million households in the country have paid their bill with less than half (46 per cent) of the €67 million due being collected so far.

Environment Minister Alan Kelly and Tánaiste Joan Burton Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

Even allowing for the teething problems, the fact that many homes may have gotten incorrect bills, and that no reminders have been sent the psychological impact of such a low compliance rate will be a huge boost to the anti-water charges movement. Last night, we witnessed first hand the visible delight of Socialist TD Ruth Coppinger as government spinners claimed it was “quite a decent start”.

The question now is whether those who haven’t paid and those still waiting for their bill will be emboldened by these numbers and will refuse to pay. The next set of figures will be interesting as will the turnout for an anti-water charges demonstration outside Leinster House this evening.

• Read: Irish Water thinks the 43% payment rate is ‘a solid start’

The agenda

• 9.30am: The banking inquiry hears evidence from former NTMA chief executive John Corrigan, former Irish Banking Federation chief Pat Farrell (11.30am) and the former secretary general at the Department of the Taoiseach Dermot McCarthy (2.30pm). 
• 10am: Three independent TDs – Catherine Murphy, Róisín Shortfall and Stephen Donnelly – will unveil their “new political venture” at an event in Wood Quay. 
• 12pm: It’s Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil with independent TD Mick Wallace promising more revelations about Nama. 

• 12.45pm: The Seanad has another busy day of legislative work with the Gender Recognition Bill, a Houses of the Oireachtas Appointments Bill and the Teaching Council Amendment Bill all due before the upper house. Senators won’t adjourn until 10pm. 
• 2pm: The Dáil discusses an all-party motion on the 1971 Ballymurphy massacre and legacy issues arising from it. Sinn Féin are holding a press event with some of the families this morning at 10.45am. 
• 3.20pm: TDs are to spend a couple of hours delivering statements on the current situation in Northern Ireland with Wallace promising more Nama-related revelations here too. 
• 4pm: The Petitions Committee discusses the US military and CIA’s use of Shannon airport and Irish airspace with DCU’s Dr Karen Devine and Irish Times journalist Paddy Smyth. 
• 6pm: A water charges protest is due to take place outside the Dáil. 
• The Fine Gael and Labour parliamentary parties meeting in Leinster House this evening.

Inside Leinster House 

There’s been a fair bit of interest in the “new political venture” being launched by three independent TDs today and lots of chat about whether they’ll have a ‘big name’ to unveil. However, rumours that Amnesty Ireland chief and former Progressive Democrat senator Colm O’Gorman will be involved are wide of he mark. He “couldn’t and wouldn’t” get involved in party politics again, he told us yesterday.

What the others are saying

• There are more people in the US who can vote in the Seanad elections than in Roscommon, according to an analysis of the electorate for the six university seats in the upper house by the Irish Times.  
• The same paper also carries an interview with retiring Fine Gael TD Frank Feighan who opens up about the abuse he received over the closure of Roscommon Hospital. 
• The Irish Independent reports that a ‘class war’ has broken out in south Dublin after Sinn Féin claimed working class areas are bearing the brunt of social housing projects.
• The Irish Examiner says that the new political venture being launched today is expected to be called the Social Democrats. It will have no leader initially and will target disillusioned Labour voters at the next election, the paper says. 

In case you missed it

• Sinn Féin stood by its friends in Greece… 
• … as Michael Noonan said the country’s recent referendum was an absolute disaster. 
• Meanwhile, a senator suggest Greece needed the help of Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan. 
• A Twitter campaign sparked a war of words between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. 
• We asked if it was okay for political parties to collect money outside church gates. 
• It looks like Seán FitzPatrick will avoid being quizzed by the banking inquiry. 

On the tweet machine

She’s not happy about “extensive mental waterboarding”.