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.

“The whole objective has been to reduce the water charge. That is why we have been concerned it should be based on water usage.

We’ve made a lot of progress in the last few days in Government on securing an agreement on the issue of water charges. We still have some work to do. I hope it will be possible to come to a conclusion on it shortly.”

Labour insists it has won its battle to get rid of the proposed €50 standing charge on all customers, but the shortfall is expected to be made up by higher usage charges.

A €40m package of benefits for vulnerable groups like the elderly and carers is part of the compromise intended to ease Coalition conflict on the issue.

Mr Gilmore also clashed with junior science minister Sean Sherlock over whether Labour’s Ireland South Euro candidate Phil Prendergast can be taken seriously after she called for the Labour leader to be ousted before voters go to the polls on May 23.

Mr Sherlock branded her remarks “silly and ill-timed” and added that she could no longer be taken seriously.

Mr Gilmore responded: “She can be taken most seriously as the Labour Party candidate in Ireland South. She has our full support, she has been a very good MEP, and I believe that she should be re-elected. She has the full support of the LP and we are continuing our campaign to have her elected in Ireland South.”

Referring to Labour’s dismal showing in opinion polls, he said: “An opinion poll is like looking at a still from a movie — it’s not the full picture and it doesn’t tell you what the ending is going to be.”