No plans to plug Irish Water funds gap if charges scrapped

It will cost €123m to fund Irish Water until April but the Government has no plans on plugging the gap after that if charges are fully scrapped.

However, the Government says the money needed to fund Irish Water in the coming months will be taken from savings.

Some €110m is available as a result of not having to pay out the water conservation grant.

The remaining €13m will come from the Local Government Fund.

Minister for Local Government Simon Coveney yesterday brought the memo on funding to cabinet which was signed off on by ministers.

The long-term funding of the utility is now being considered by a special commission on water charges chaired by former senator Joe O’Toole.

The commission is due to report back with recommendations to an Oireachtas committee by the end of November.

The committee will then have three months to decide on the best course of action and will put its own recommendations to the Oireachtas in February. A vote on the matter is not expected until the end of March.

Until then, the Government has said it will not make any decision on a long-term funding model for Irish Water.

However, Mr Coveney recently said: “Let’s be honest about this, if the Oireachtas decides to do away with water charges, then we still need to progress and deliver on the significant capital expenditure programme that Irish Water needs to deliver on.

"That will have to come through other revenue raising and presumably general taxation, which then limits in our ability to spend in other areas and also undermines the water conservation incentive that comes with having some link between what people pay and how much they use, never mind all the issues around water directives.”