8 hours Ago
Just when you thought it was safe to go out again, those water charges have come back. Last time around, a decade ago, an attempt to charge for domestic water and sewerage services caused uproar and ended as a financial and political debacle for a nation still trying to emerge from crippling recession. Now the issue is back on the political agenda due to a long-overlooked provision embedded in arrangements, agreed in 2017, that abandoned the main thrust of the contested charging regime.
As the Irish Independent has reported, the new minister responsible for water services, Housing Minister James Browne, is being urged by officials to quickly implement “water over-use charges” for households where excessive amounts are consumed. The previous rows about charges, from 2014 to 2016, were a clear example of government mistakes in presenting the need to raise more funds for creaking water and sewerage services. Tactically, it was very poor of the Fine Gael-Labour government, in power from 2011 to 2016, to lead with the funding need as something vital in attempts to shore up the national economy.
A much more potent argument to coax citizens towards what, in reality, amounted to another tax was the damage being done by untreated sewage flowing daily into 40 Irish watercourses. The government of the day also erred by not having an early waiver or support scheme for low-income homes to “poverty-proof” the charge regime. How can you ignore a reality that 8pc of households currently account for 30pc of domestic water over-use? Against that, opponents were excessive in claiming that “water as a human right” equated to universal free access to expensive water cleaning and distribution.
Equally, while the opposition at that time did mobilise large numbers for vocal demonstrations, their claims of universal opposition to the proposals are still open to challenge. Some parties belatedly altered their water policies in a rather spineless display. However, the planned domestic water and sewerage charge scheme was defeated in 2016.
Most mainstream politicians will shudder at the issue returning to the national agenda in any shape or form. Yet for all that deep-seated political reluctance, it is clear this issue will not go away. We are returning to a simple reality: water and sewerage services must be paid for.
The only real question is how we do that. It is a choice between more direct charges or funding from general taxes. There is recurring pressure on the issue from the EU Commission, which is asking Dublin about its water and sewerage service-provision plans.
Critical expert reports have pointed to how water supply problems remain an impediment to badly needed new housing. There is, more crucially, a simple commonsense question: How can you ignore a reality that 8pc of households currently account for 30pc of domestic water over-use? It may be too much to expect reasoned political discourse in this renewed debate, but we are entitled to demand an avoidance of political showboating. Instead, we need a reasoned national discussion on this most basic issue that is central to all our lives.
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