Nationalising Irish Water could hit hopes of balancing budget

Nationalising Irish Water could shoot holes in the Government’s promise to get the State’s budget to break even by 2018.

Despite setting up Irish Water as an independent entity, Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, ruled last year that it depends too much on the State for its revenue and so must remain on the budget books.

They estimate that the current set-up, where less than half the costs of Irish Water are being met by householders paying their charges, adds less than a quarter of a percent of GDP to the State’s deficit.