A progressive system is needed that allows people to save money by saving water, writes Colin Murphy.

As John Gray looked down from his pedestal at the marchers on O’Connell Street last Saturday, it might have occurred to him that the last occasion water brought so many Dubliners onto the streets was his funeral.

Gray’s funeral procession, in April 1875, was a mile and a half long. The newspapers compared it to that of the Liberator, Daniel O’Connell. A few years later, the city erected the statue of Gray on ...