No domestic water charges before 2012 election

WATER charges will not be imposed for at least another two years after Environment Minister John Gormley admitted they will not go ahead before June 2012 when the next general election is due to be held.

Mr Gormley said the cost of the proposed charges to each household is not yet known. But he insisted it will “not be anything close to” the widely predicted figure of €400 per year, a calculation that was based on his previous claim that they would raise €1 billion annually from the scheme.

The charges were a key demand of the Green Party for their support of Fianna Fáil in the revised Programme for Government.

But asked if the charges will be imposed before the summer of 2012 – when the current Government is due to run its course – Mr Gormley said yesterday: “I very much doubt that water charges will be in place by that time.”

A proposal for the new water metering system will be brought to cabinet in the next fortnight and the process of fitting meters into about 1.2 million households is due to start early next year.

An initial charge of €175 for the installation of meters is also expected, based on Department of Finance figures submitted to An Bord Snip Nua last year.

Mr Gormley said if people are charged on a pay-per-use basis they will “begin to realise very quickly that this is a resource that needs to be used wisely”.

Labour said it remains opposed to domestic water charges and said the cost should be met through a reformed tax system.

“This will be a severe blow at a time when many families have had their incomes hit by unemployment and wage cuts in the public and private sectors,” said environment spokeswoman Joanna Tuffy.

Mr Gormley also announced plans for investing €320 million over the next three years on repairing water pipes and finding the “lost water” – or supplies of up to 56% in some local authorities that go missing through damaged pipes.

It is part of the €1.8bn to be spent over three years under the Water Services Investment Programme, which aims to conserve and improve water supplies.

The Government is trying to sort out the issue to avoid the imposition of fines by the European Commission.

Fine Gael said the issue needs to be addressed through a single water utility company, instead of by individual councils.

“With 34 local authorities all spending their part of the water budget in their own way there are no economies of scale or joined-up thinking,” said environment spokesman Phil Hogan.

“Instead of attempting to change the system that has seen over 43% of treated drinking water supplies lost by local authorities, Minister Gormley is just engaging in the old Fianna Fáil tactic of throwing money at the problem and hoping it goes away,” said Mr Hogan.