The Government expects to collect some £200 million a year in water charges from business, industry and farmers in order to help finance record investment in water and sewerage services.
Announcing the £2.1 billion three-year programme yesterday, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said the charges would relate to the volume of water being used, in line with the "polluter pays" principle.
The intention is that the "more transparent" volume-related charges would replace the water and sewerage element of commercial rates levied by local authorities in early 2002, under a Water Services Bill in preparation.
Levying non-domestic users for the costs of providing water and sewerage services is intended to promote responsible use of natural resources and higher environmental standards by attaching a monetary value to their environmental impact.
But the Minister stressed that householders would continue to be exempt from such charges. "We fought long and hard on that one and succeeded in ensuring that they would not be included in the new EU Water Framework Directive," he said.
Large industrial users of water and sewerage services will also be expected to contribute to the capital cost of new facilities. Major inward investors regard this as normal practice, according to the Department of the Environment.
The £2.1 billion investment package provides for the construction of 529 water and sewerage schemes, mainly to meet Ireland's obligations under the EU Municipal Waste Water Directive.
Among the projects in the programme to 2002 are the completion of Dublin Bay, Cork, Limerick and Waterford main drainage schemes and the start of work on schemes serving Sligo, Letterkenny, Westport and other towns.
Funding is being provided for new projects in every county. For example, £12 million is being invested in Courtown, Co Wexford, where the proliferation of holiday homes in recent years has put pressure on both water and sewerage.
According to the Minister, one of the key objectives of the programme is to facilitate economic and social development while complying with EU and national water quality standards. At least half of the £2.1 billion investment will support urban development, including the Government's Serviced Land Initiative. By the end of this year, Mr Dempsey said, schemes to facilitate 100,000 new homes will be "at various stages of construction"
In addition to the Serviced Land Initiative, a number of major infrastructural schemes critical to new housing development have been approved, including a water main to serve the north fringe of Dublin city, where up to 18,000 new homes are envisaged.
Asked whether the latest investment programme could prejudice the proposed National Spatial Strategy by facilitating urban expansion in areas not already identified for future growth, the Minister said he was satisfied that the strategy would not be prejudiced.
However, he admitted that the pattern of development in recent years had placed substantial pressures on water services, with many public supply networks having little or no spare capacity as well as losing substantial volumes of water annually through leaks.
He pointed out that a £39 million water conservation programme in Dublin had reduced the level of leakage to 24 per cent. A total of 22,000 leaks in the distribution system had been identified, mainly with the use of telemetry, and 17,000 had been repaired.
A comprehensive review of the water supply network nationally by consultants W.S. Atkins, submitted to the Minister yesterday, has identified further potential for water conservation, and the Minister said an additional £200 million was being earmarked to fund it.
The reason for announcing a three-year programme was to enable local authorities, engineering consultants and contractors to plan more effectively and meet the challenges inherent in a threefold increase in capital spending on water services.
Mr Dempsey said there would be significant scope for public-private partnerships (PPPs) to accelerate the delivery of water and sewerage projects and for the involvement of civil engineering contractors from abroad "preferably bringing their workers with them".
More than 100 projects have been identified as having "PPP potential", principally through private companies contracting to design, build and operate facilities. Projects advanced on this basis include the new sewage treatment plant at Poolbeg, on Dublin Bay.
Under the 1994-1999 National Development Plan, the EU provided most of the funding for water and sewerage projects. However, reflecting Ireland's current prosperity, its contribution to the latest programme will be £251 million, or just 12 per cent.
Yesterday's announcement follows the recent allocation of a record £35 million for the upgrading of rural water supply schemes. A national water quality monitoring programme, testing all private water supply sources over the next year, is to start later this month.
