Irish Water is not what Fianna Fáil had planned

I read the piece by Peter O Dwyer (Irish Examiner, April 21) regarding Irish Water and Eurostat with considerable interest as more than €1.3bn will be added to the government deficit over a three-year period if a key Eurostat decision on Irish Water goes against Mr Noonan.

A lot has been thrown at Fianna Fáil regarding water and the Troika agreement without close examination of the relevant paragraphs.

When I read the Troika Agreement negotiated in 2010, paragraphs 36 and 37, my first thoughts were that they were well drafted as there was plenty of room for scope. I can only assume that the person who drafted this part of the agreement was well aware of the 1997 legislation introduced by Brendan Howlin TD and acknowledged that water charges already existed indirectly and paid by those who pay motor tax.

In 2000, Bertie Ahern negotiated a clause in the EU water services directive to exempt households from domestic water charges. There is room within paragraph 36 to raise these matters in coming up with a proposal.

The model for Irish Water put forward by Fianna Fáil was totally different to what Phil Hogan created. A small company along the lines of the NRA with work carried out locally is a far cry from Irish Water as we know it today. Funding would be through the existing motor tax provision in the 1997 legislation and raising of capital through the sale of government bonds for the much needed investment.

All this would have been done had Fianna Fáil been allowed to continue to implement the Troika agreement. Instead we were forced into a Irish Water under Fine Gael, which is wasteful and secretive in its dealings; an Irish Water that was set up against the wishes of large numbers of people who have been obliged to pay when they can least afford to do so.

I support the placing in the Constitution of a guarantee that water will remain in public ownership and this goes for the mechanism to deliver water to domestic and other users too.

Irish Water, as the government have created, is a model designed to be sold off. I’m still not confident that the meters actually refer to consumption can be linked to specific billing addresses. The question of Eurostat will be buried and the huge amount of money wasted will be pushed under the carpet. But I will not allow it said that Irish Water was a Fianna Fáil invention no matter how politically convenient it might be for some to do so.

Caitríona McClean

Weston Ave

Lucan

Co Dublin