An IRSP spokesperson for the Derry Cumann said: "What this un-elected British Minister is attempting to do is bleed the working class people dry. Ian Pearson, like the rest of his cohorts in Westminster and Stormont seem to believe that our class can somehow endlessly withdraw money from some mysterious crock of gold. It is simply joke at which no one on poverty wages or on social welfare payments is laughing.

"This comes during a week when people who are already living on or below the bread line were expected to be grateful for being given a weekly increase in their benefits of fifty-five pence. Ian Pearson's latest comments will be viewed as insulting and obscene by the vast majority of our class and quite rightly so.

The spokesperson concluded by stating: "Paying twice for our water may have little effect on his wallet or that of the wallets of his puppet Stormont MLA's. One thing is for sure it will have a detrimental impact in the homes of ordinary working class men, women and children who have little or nothing to exist on already."

STATEMENT ENDS