In November 2010, the Irish government agreed to introduce domestic water charges in return for its €85 billion bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Meters were to be installed throughout the country, households were expected to pay an extra €500 per year for water usage, and responsibility for water infrastructure would be transferred from local authorities to the semi-state company Irish Water.

These measures came alongside a raft of liberalization policies set out in the IMF’s Memorandum of Understanding, which instructed the government to raise taxes, cut welfare, shrink the public sector, reduce the minimum wage, hand €72 billion to the banks, and promote competition in previously “sheltered sectors” such as law and medicine.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael — Ireland’s main political parties, both of which represent the center-right — embraced the Troika program during their 2011 election campaigns. But Labour promised to renegotiate the bailout from a pro-growth perspective. Its manifesto decried the “excessive austerity” of the Memorandum and expressed its “concern about the value-for-money” of establishing new semi-state initiatives.