Gilmore dodges water bill concerns

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has side-stepped concern that scrapping the water tax standing charge will lead to higher usage bills.

The Labour leader insisted his party’s stance in the stand-off with Fine Gael was intended to make the charging regime fairer.

“We have not been in favour of flat charging,” said Mr Gilmore. We have been clear, and indeed the Programme for Government has been clear, that any water charging should be based on usage so that households can have an incentive to conserve water but also can be able to reduce their bill.