State may avoid EU battle by deferring water bills

Ireland could escape potential European Commission court action over cancelling water charges if it defers the controversial fees for a number of years instead of scrapping them entirely.

The Irish Examiner understands the situation is likely to be tolerated by Brussels as a way to avoid a multi-million euro court battle and allow breathing space for Ireland to form a government. Under the European Commission’s water framework directive, every EU member state had until 2010 to introduce water charges.

However, a loophole contained in article 9.4 of the document allowed countries to avoid the fees with alternative ways to conserve water and pay for services where there was no “established practice” of the payments.

It had been believed that the “established practice” position meant Ireland could not change its water charges regime once it was introduced as the policy is now in place and a tradition of fees currently exists.

However, while EU figures will hold Ireland to the legal reality and take court action if charges are scrapped, it may consider tolerating deferring fees for up to four years — until January 2020 — to give parties breathing space to form a new government.

While such a scenario is understood to likely lead to legal letters being exchanged between Ireland and the EU bodies, which will have what one official said is the “big stick behind them” of court action, deferring charges on the strict condition the new introduction date is adhered to could avoid any cases from occurring.

The matter has previously been raised by a number of opposition TDs and has been hinted as a way to resolve the Irish Water stand-off which is seen as one of the key issues preventing the formation of the next government.

On Wednesday Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the removal of Irish Water would be a “costly and seriously historic mistake” just 12 hours after Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney said his party is “willing to talk about water” — before performing a U-turn later that day.

The comment was in response to Fianna Fáil environment spokesperson Barry Cowen’s claim on Tuesday that delaying water charges for the next five years or until tangible service improvements are clear is a “red line” issue.

While the party continues to hold the view that action is needed on Irish Water, party leader Micheál Martin stressed during its parliamentary party meeting yesterday that no red line issues exist until any potential negotiations begin.

However, the party still holds its overall policy view that Irish Water charges should be delayed until services improve.

Before the separate Fine Gael meeting yesterday, Sports Minister Michael Ring insisted “me and my family and my office staff, and everybody else, have suffered over the last five years over water charges” and that the “core principle” should remain.

“We went out and fought the election, if we were to get rid of them we should have done that before the election. We certainly could not look at the water situation,” he said.

Mr Coveney also apologised during the meeting for his Tuesday night comments, while several TDs insisted there can be no change as 60% of people are now paying the fees.

However, while a Fine Gael party spokesperson insisted last night its water charges position remains unchanged, senior party figures told the Irish Examiner on Wednesday they may consider “parking” fees.

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