Is it free or is it paid through taxes? If it’s paid through taxes how much does it cost you in taxes? Also, are there any other fees that aren’t “paying for water” but functionally are?
For example, I pay approximately $50 per month for water, but if I wanted to be cute I could say I only pay $7.00 per month because the rate is $3.50 per 1,000 gallons. The other $43 dollars are in fixed meter, availability, and stormwater charges (basically the basic price needed to ensure infrastructure is maintained no matter how much water I use).
That’s what I would assume as well. I would be curious to know how much in taxes it costs each person, but they probably don’t get that level of detail in their tax breakdown and progressive tax structures probably mean some people pay proportionally more than others. Just doing a quick look ~80% of water public utilities are provided by Irish Water, a government run utility program. In the 2025 budget they had €2.2 billion in funding for projects and €2.5 billion for water service. Ireland has a population of ~5.4 million people so the monthly per capita cost would be ~€72 per month in taxes.
Your tap water is free?
In Ireland it is, but our neoliberal governments are constantly trying to push wildly unpopular charges.
Is it free or is it paid through taxes? If it’s paid through taxes how much does it cost you in taxes? Also, are there any other fees that aren’t “paying for water” but functionally are?
For example, I pay approximately $50 per month for water, but if I wanted to be cute I could say I only pay $7.00 per month because the rate is $3.50 per 1,000 gallons. The other $43 dollars are in fixed meter, availability, and stormwater charges (basically the basic price needed to ensure infrastructure is maintained no matter how much water I use).
It would be paid through taxes, just because people don’t get a bill specifically for a certain service or utility they assume it’s free.
That’s what I would assume as well. I would be curious to know how much in taxes it costs each person, but they probably don’t get that level of detail in their tax breakdown and progressive tax structures probably mean some people pay proportionally more than others. Just doing a quick look ~80% of water public utilities are provided by Irish Water, a government run utility program. In the 2025 budget they had €2.2 billion in funding for projects and €2.5 billion for water service. Ireland has a population of ~5.4 million people so the monthly per capita cost would be ~€72 per month in taxes.
Noone thinks that.
OP did literally just say that though