Joe O’Toole’s decision to step down from the newly formed expert commission on water charges leaves the group rudderless, without direction, and in need of a new chief.

The chairman of the new water charges expert commission has slammed left- wing politicians’ views and also said Revenue could examine taking over collection of the levy.

Former trade union leader Joe O’Toole has been made chairman of an expert commission to decide on the future of water charges and Irish Water.

The environment minister who set up Irish Water and warned non-payers their service would be cut “to a trickle” has refused to say whether the utility should be scrapped.

Junior Minister Simon Harris has denied claims by the opposition that the budget for flood defences is €8.7m less this year than was allocated in 2015.

Ireland is to receive €200m from Europe to build flood defences across the country.

IRELAND is now firmly on what I believe is an unstoppable journey of marine expansion, writes, Simon Coveney.

“For the past two years, Ireland’s has topped Europe’s growth charts,” said EU Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, on a recent visit to Cork.

THE odd snippet of good news about nature, such as the hatching of five white-tailed eaglets, should not lull us into a believing that things are looking up for the natural world.

Ireland’s maritime economy is growing nearly twice as fast as the general economy. And the importance of harnessing the ocean, even more, will be highlighted at a major conference next month.

Get a taste of some of the interesting and quirky happenings in Europe from our Europe correspondent, Ann Cahill.

Threatened cuts to Ireland’s fish catch were averted at the year-end agreement on fish quota when an increase worth €123m for whitefish and €60m in prawn quota was agreed.

Measuring how much water is used by households is a basic pre-condition under EU rules, but how much to charge for water is up to the Government, according to the European Commission.