Water solution is still the €8bn conundrum
A couple of years ago, I based an Irish Examiner column on the experience I had driving through California in the midst of a frightening drought.
This experience brought home to me just how important water is as a commodity and put in context the rubbish that was being spouted by much of the anti-water charge campaign in this country.
Upon my return, I was greeted with a torrent of vitriolic personal abuse from keyboard warriors, most of whom operated under the cowardly veil of anonymity.
This week, the water charge issue came back into the limelight with apparent strong disagreement emerging amongst the members of the Oireachtas committee that was set up to look into the issue of water charges, which in itself was an attempt to kick the issue down the road.
However, we have now reached another cul de sac on that road and definitive decisions will have to be made on how Ireland’s water infrastructure will be brought up to standard.
My personal belief is we should pay for water and the more we use the more we should pay. A generous allowance should be part of the deal and account should be taken of ability to pay.
I also believe the setting up of a utility to focus on water is the right way to go. However, the manner in which the last Government approached the issue was all wrong and displayed a remarkable degree of political cowardice and incompetence.
Be that as it may, it is vital that we address all of these issues now, before it is too late.
The reality is a guaranteed supply of clean and safe water is vital for the health and the economic prosperity of the country. Another reality is that these conditions currently do not exist.
Water quality in many parts of the country is poor and often injurious to health; the pipe network is of poor physical quality and in some cases poisonous; and we are still pumping raw sewage into the sea.
All of these issues are totally unacceptable, not to mention the fact that they are exposing Ireland to potentially significant fines from the EU.
It is estimated that the Irish water infrastructure will require investment in excess of €8bn over the coming years to bring it up to an acceptable standard.
The question is where this money might come from? We have three options — do nothing, increase taxes or divert expenditure away from other vital public services.
The anti-water charge brigade argue it should come from general taxation and that we are already paying for water through general taxation. If that is the case, we are clearly not paying enough as evidenced by the unacceptably low level of investment in the water infrastructure.
The truth is if you are not in the income tax net, then you are paying little — if anything — into the tax system to fund water. It is great to argue that taxes should be increased to pay for the water system, but this is a very easy argument to make if one is not in the income tax system in the first place.
For those of us who are, the burden of personal taxation has become very penal over the past decade and we now have one of the most progressive tax systems in the world. Any further increase in that burden will destroy incentives and undermine the economy.
The other option, of course, is to take money from other areas of public sector provision. However, we are now in a situation where the gardaí are struggling to provide vital services after years of serious under-investment and the same can be said about health and education.
The ultimate problem is there is a segment of the population that is not prepared to pay for anything, as evidenced by the dumping of rubbish along rural roads as well as the water campaign.
Unfortunately, a large part of the political system is pandering to those people and is promoting the idea that it is acceptable to break the law of the land.
