Ireland's Water Consumption Just Became a Tragedy of the Commons

On the 13th of April, the Diil (the Irish parliament) decided to get rid of the 2014-introduced domestic charging schemes for water consumption. The legislation had forced many Irish citizens to pay individual water charges, as opposed to water being a universal good provided solely through the government, free of charge. As the first bills arrived in January 2015, thousands of people took to the streets to protest what was perceived as austerity measures.