Water charges fiasco proves our politicians are out of their depth

IMAGINE the scene. The troika is finally going home. There’s a deputation wrapped in Tricolours seeing them off at the airport singing, “We’re the best small country in the world in which to do business” in part harmony.

Suddenly a woman breaks ranks and grabs a trousered troika leg wailing, “Don’t leave! You can’t leave us on our own with our elected politicians!”

The woman is me and she is driven to despair by our shenanigans over paying for the water we use. Surely, when our history is written, the efforts of our politicians to stop us paying for this priceless natural resource will be among the more shameful chapters.

The characters seem to have strayed from a bad pantomime. As I write the Government is trying to get the troika to agree to a stay of execution on introducing the charge on January 1 because the meters aren’t installed. The meters aren’t even beginning to be installed.

The best estimate from Irish Water for a start date is July and installation is going to take at least three years. The primary legislation to establish Irish Water has not yet gone through the Dáil and the CEO has not yet taken up his post.

An agreement to meter water use and charge for it was introduced by the Green Party into the Revised Programme for Government with Fianna Fáil in 2009. It was in the agreement with the troika in 2010 a full three years ago.

And three years later, Irish Water hasn’t installed a single meter. Despite the fact that there is a standing army of unemployed construction workers ready and willing to do this work. Work which is vital to the future of this country, because without water we are nothing. And, as has been repeated again and again, although a lot of rain falls from Irish skies, getting drinking water into taps is an expensive business.

Despite major investment in recent years, we still waste up to 40% of the water we collect. And then we Irish consumers waste more again. Why? Because we don’t pay for the water we use, that’s why.

And this means we are sourcing water with more and more difficulty, even in ways which threaten fish stocks. It means that Dublin is constantly threatened with drought. And it means that we can’t leverage the massive competitive advantage which plentiful fresh water should give us.

Ireland is the only country in the OECD in which consumers do not pay for the water they use. Research all over the world has shown water consumption dropping once metering is installed. In the UK one study showed consumption dropped by 16%. There are successful group schemes all over rural Ireland. In Cavan the introduction of one pay-as-you-use group water scheme resulted in consumption reducing by more than half. Another group water scheme in Co Monaghan reports 96% of consumers paying their bills within a month.

So we can’t argue that Irish people have a genetic inability to pay for water — indeed our businesses do so now. We just have a genetic inability to elect politicians prepared to take difficult decisions.

You need look no further than the “Great Fianna Fáil Election Giveaway” in 1977 to find out how water charges disappeared. “When these household rates are gone,” said Fianna Fáil, “they’re definitely gone. And the water charges? When they’re gone they’re gone too.”

And did we ever buy it. Fianna Fáil got a thumping majority and in 1978 domestic water charges were done away with. Local authorities have been grappling with the budgetary shortfall caused by the ghastly giveaway ever since. And of course, this has meant they have not had enough money to maintain the system.

I’m not denying Fianna Fáil are the original baddies in this awful pantomime. It was a Fianna Fáil government under Bertie Ahern who negotiated a derogation for domestic users in Ireland under the EU’s Water Framework Directive 2000.

But sadly there are plenty of other baddies. When Tánaiste Dick Spring tried to introduce a local authority domestic service levy in 1985 he met with fierce opposition and Dublin Corporation and Council voted against it. When Dublin South and Fingal attempted to collect the tax the campaign of resistance gave a political opportunity to a little-known activist called Joe Higgins, who garnered nearly a quarter of the vote in the bye- election in Dublin West caused by the death of Brian Lenihan Senior.

This struggle was among the more lively acts of the water charge panto and anarchist comrades fondly remember it on websites and blogs: “The victory in the anti-water charge campaign is just one step forward, now it’s time to change the world!”

Brian Lenihan Junior shaded it in the end. But the key statistic to come out of that bye-election was that the Labour candidate won only 4% of the vote.

Four percent. Have you heard that somewhere before? Like Meath East in March 2013?

In 1997 then Environment Minister Brendan Howlin entered stage left and waved his magic wand to abolish the local authority domestic service levy. On being named to head up Irish Water, ex-City Manager John Tierney made the point that a decision then to meter new homes would have meant that 40% of Irish homes would now be metered.

Labour maintained their stance against water charges right up to the last general election. When the Water Services Bill 2004 was being debated in the Dáil then-Environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore described it as “a formula to get around the 1997 act and reintroduce water charges by another name, be that a rent for a meter or a straight-up charge. It is our duty as an opposition to oppose his legislation.”

Now, hurting from another 4% result, they are at it again, seemingly pressurising Phil Hogan and the troika to delay water metering until after the local elections next year. And Phil Hogan’s best defence is that the last lot agreed it with the troika.

I do see that attempting to introduce a flat charge would be very difficult and without meters you can’t meter. But where is the urgency about metering? Where are the meters? Nowhere to be seen.

And Fianna Fáil is throwing pies at Hogan whenever he suggests implementing the plan they themselves agreed with the Troika. Fianna Fáil spokesperson on expenditure, Sean Fleming said in the Dáil recently that no domestic user should be charged for water for three to five years after the establishment of Irish Water due to the wastage in the system.

Last week, as water restrictions were placed on homes and businesses in Dublin due to shortage of supply, Dublin City councillors unanimously adopted a Fianna Fáil motion opposing the introduction of water charges until a “reliable” water supply is in place.

We can’t pay for a reliable system until we charge for water. And we will waste water until we pay for it.

Get it? Does anyone in the present Dáil get it? Or would the troika consider staying on to save us from ourselves?