The Irish Independent's personal finance editor Charlie Weston has described himself as one of "one million suckers who have paid their water charges". Writing in his newspaper at the weekend, he said these people were "the same one million suckers who paid all the new taxes, charges and levies imposed since the financial collapse of 2008.
"And one million people now know that any benefits of an upturn in the economy will be largely kept from them.
"Because the political agenda has been hijacked by those who want to abolish any tax or charge that they don't like, and instead impose the costs on middle earners.
The betrayal of middle Ireland is galling."
