Labour TDs set to veto FG plans for water charges

ANGRY Labour TDs look set to pull the plug on Fine Gael plans for a flat rate water charge.

Moves by Environment Minister Phil Hogan to push through a household utility charge for the country’s 1.8 million homes next year have provoked a strong backlash in the Coalition.

Labour TDs fear the fee, expected to be between €175 and €200 a year, will be seen as stealth water charge and in direct contradiction of the Programme for Government’s pledge not to bring in such a charge before metering is in place.

“You can’t say you are going to do one thing and then do something else,” Labour’s Tommy Broughan warned.

“The pips are already squeaking and this is just another example of another regressive tax that will impact harshly on working people,” the TD said.

“We are putting €10 billion straight from the taxpayer into the banking morass this year, so I do not think putting more pressure on working people is the right way to go,” he added.

Cork Labour TD Ciarán Lynch also expressed concern about the move, dismissing water charging without metering as a “blunt instrument” which would fail to fulfil environmentally friendly ambitions to curtail wasteful water usage.

Senior Labour figures are said to be uneasy about the move as they believed that in the absence of metering the Government would set a rate for all households paid for out of public funds, and individual families would then only have to pay water fees if their usage went above that amount.

The household utilities fee would be used to help fund the installation of water meters in all households in the state in the next few years, the environment department said.

A flat rate fee could bring in up to €200m a year, and is likely to be coupled with a “site value tax” the Government is committed to in the bailout deal, set to cost families another €200m.

Sinn Féin and the United Left Alliance have accused the Coalition of abandoning its pledges on water charging.