“I was elected on a platform of a boycott of water charges and saying I would assist people who didn’t want water meters in refusing to have them imposed on them. The charges and the imposition of meters are the law – they are unjust laws, which I was elected to break as part of a campaign of mass civil disobedience. For all of the Independent’s mock outrage, that is not the real story here.
“The real story is why this video was leaked now and to whom. It is a video taken secretly by a Supervisor for Farron’s, a subcontractor imposing meters for Irish Water in Dublin South West. Presumably the video is the property of Farron’s or Irish Water, not of the individual. So a decision was made by Farron’s or Irish Water to give this video to the Irish Independent at this stage. Why?
“Is it connected to the fact that during the week in the Dail I spoke out about very serious harassment and intimidation by private thugs hired by GMC Sierra in Dublin 7? That I repeated these statements on Prime Time on Thursday night?
“Another interesting question to ask. During my appearance on Prime Time, you will see that Regina Doherty TD uses the exact phrase “Paul thinks he was elected to break the law” as one of the first things that she says. Is that purely a coincidence, or had she seen the video and been prompted to ask the question? If it is a coincidence, it is quite a striking one, given that the video was released on the Independent site less than 36 hours later.
“To summarise what seems to be the likely sequence of events – I raise a concern about the Denis O’Brien owned GMC Sierra using private thugs to intimidate people. A video is leaked by Irish Water or Farron’s to the Independent Newspaper and possibly to Fine Gael designed to undermine me.”
