Ex-mayor vows legal action to get water charge refunded

A former Fine Gael lord mayor of Dublin has pledged to take a legal action to have water charges reimbursed if the charges are abolished by any incoming government.

Gerry Breen, who ran for the party in the 2011 general election, says that he will look for “like-minded people” who have paid their water charges to join him in the action.

According to Irish Water, 928,000 households had paid the charge by the beginning of this year, although it is unclear as to how many quarterly bills have been paid by each household.

The total amount paid for water is therefore somewhere between €50m and €100m.

Both Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin stated during the general election campaign that they would abolish water charges — for a five-year period in Fianna Fail’s case — but both insisted that those who had already paid would not receive any refund.

“It’s all about fairness,” Mr Breen said. “People who have paid and people who haven’t paid will be treated differently and in any court of law that wouldn’t stack up.

“If the State takes a decision that allows people to walk away from their debt I will take an action to ensure that anybody who has paid will get a full refund.”

According to a legal source, any such action would not be guaranteed success.

One of the few cases in a similar vein involved an action taken in 1982 by a married couple against the State over a law which imposed a higher tax on their joint income than if they had been taxed as individuals.

The couple was successful in the case on the basis that the law was unconstitutional. The constitutionality of the water services bill has not been challenged.

In any event, the case involved refund of tax for the couple, but only since the day they instigated the legal action.

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