Tax doesn’t hold water

The purpose of the water tax, we are told, is to conserve this precious resource.

A minimum amount of water will be supplied to each household free for hygiene and personal consumption. This is for health and safety reasons rather than being government largesse.

The water charge must be based on units used above this threshold. Frugal citizens have been purchasing ‘waterbutts’, or outside barrels, to collect rainwater. But the small print from Irish Water tells us that they will be applying a “low usage charge” to their customers’ bills. This can be seen as a penalty on anyone who is conserving water. How can this be justified?