Kathleen Lynch: We need to bring this back on track.
Labour junior health minister Kathleen Lynch insisted TDs from both parties were unhappy at the confusion surrounding the issue, warning it had been handled “very badly”.
The comments were clearly directed at embattled Environment Minister Phil Hogan, whom some Labour TDs have accused of deliberately timed the water-metering announcement to take the gloss off the party’s conference in Galway.
“If I was into conspiracy theory I might go along with that, but I doubt it very much, and if that was the intention then it obviously didn’t work,” Ms Lynch told RTÉ.
She said the water-metering announcement had been dealt with so poorly that it had become derailed.
“Obviously, it was handled very badly,” she said. “We now need to bring this back on track.
“It wasn’t just Labour TDs who had a difficulty about this. I think a lot of Fine Gael TDs had difficulties about how it was handled.”
Ms Lynch said there was no alternative to the metering agenda.
“We have a situation in this country where we had the cryptosporidium outbreak in Galway, and where Dublin is running out of water,” she said.
“It is not as if we don’t have enough rain falling down on us — it is how we handle it.”
Transport Minister Leo Varadkar apologised on behalf of the Government for “scaring” people with the unclear plans for charging.
Mr Hogan has been in the firing line after a series of missteps left householders confused about the charges.
The environment department sparked the misunderstanding by stating people would have to pay for the installation of the meters. The Taoiseach then intervened saying a €450m loan from pension reserves would cover the cost, and the Tánaiste insisted no such decision had been made.
It then emerged households would pay an €800 charge for instillation over the next 20 years, but Mr Hogan could not say what the price of water would be, or how those who refused to pay would be cut off.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
