Floating voters won’t forget water charges farce

An Oireachtas committee now looks set to recommend that the estimated 989,000 households who paid get some form of refund. 

After four years of the hated Irish Water quango; battles over the installation of 890,000 meters outside homes; the muddled billing of 1.5m people; and political chaos over charging households, the money taken from people now looks set to be refunded to those who paid their charges.

Furthermore, there is little appetite for an “excess” water use charge. Water charges are finished.

That was the declaration from TDs across parties yesterday about pending recommendations to the Dáil.

The dragged-out narrative about water charges will be mulled over for years. It will make wasteful spending by previous governments look like small change when the full amounts are totted up.

Initially, there were threats by the last government to reduce people’s water supply to a trickle; then there were water quotas for children; and finally there was the farcical “conservation grant” to help pay for bills.

An Oireachtas committee examining the future of water charges now looks set to recommend that the estimated 989,000 households who paid get some form of refund.

It could be by cheque, a tax credit or through Revenue. The same conclusion though will be reached: Attempts by the Fine Gael-Labour government to charge for water have failed.

In fact, a decision to refund households is being declared a “victory” for anti-water campaigners, who co-ordinated marches against the levy across the country.

Committee members are meeting this week to finalise a report which will go to the Dáil and guide parties on how to vote on the future of water charges. This decision must be made by the end of March as charges have been frozen only until then.

As of last night, Fianna Fáil’s position was that it is against any form of future charge. It wants to end the metering programme, except for district metering, and says EU water rules can be bypassed by funding services through general taxation.

It must not be forgotten that Fianna Fáil backed the idea of water charges when in power up until 2011, where even its election manifesto promised meters would create thousands of jobs.

If bills are refunded, the next question is whether excessive water use will be charged for in the future. Most TDs and senators in the committee seem opposed to any future metering system or a possible excess water charge.

This is despite the country having already paid €500m to install meters for almost 900,000 homes. Without a complete metering system, it is hard to see how water usage per household will be measured.

District metering in Scotland is being mentioned as an alternative. But abandonment of individual metering means any excess charge is unlikely.

There are many questions still to be answered, such as how households will be incentivised to use less water or whether they will be punished for excessive use.

And what about the meters in the ground; the demands by the EU that the “polluter pays”; and the ability to detect leaks on properties?

Water charging was tried in Dublin and collapsed in 1996. It now seems that for a second time in around 20 years, another failed attempt to roll out charges has come to an end.

Granted, the committee has yet to finish its report by March 13 and a Dáil vote will follow. But the numbers in the committee and their positions, as of last night, suggest a regime of future charges is finished.

This leads to the next situation. Under the confidence and supply agreement, the Government must initiate legislation to scrap charges if the Dáil vote goes that way.

Fianna Fáil’s newfound position on water is likely to put the Fine Gael government in an awkward position of having to scrap and refund bills it introduced — something voters are unlikely to forget.