June 30th will be the deadline for registering with Irish Water to be eligible for receipt of the water conservation grant this year, Minister for Environment Alan Kelly has told the Dáil.
Mr Kelly also said that if a household has not registered by this date, “it will not be able to receive this €100 grant from the Department of Social Protection from September 2015”.
Mr Kelly said the revised charges were “among the lowest levels in Europe”. Households in England and Wales paid an average of €540 a year during 2014-2015.
He said Irish Water would lift boil water notices on 17,000 homes “in the coming months” and has 385 major capital projects under way nationally.
The Minister also said that 20 per cent of the population already paid for their water and had done for generations on group water schemes. “Is it okay for rural people to pay for water as long as it’s not for urban people?” he asked.
Mr Kelly said demand in Dublin alone would rise by 50 per cent by 2050, well beyond existing capacity, and it was necessary “to create a national network of water infrastructure, something akin to the Irish Rail network for water that will sustain economic development”.
And he added that the abolition of Irish Water and water charges would do nothing to help the 940,000 people who “depend on water treatment plants that are at risk of not meeting required standards”.
He said the Opposition criticised the costs of Irish Water but he said the economic cost of a water shortage would be €78 million a day to the economy.
Mr Kelly was responding to a private members' motion from six of the 18 members of the technical group – Joe Higgins, Ruth Coppinger, Paul Murphy, Clare Daly, Richard Boyd Barrett and Finian McGrath, members of the Socialist Party and the Anti-Austerity Alliance.
The motion calls for the immediate abolition of water charges and of Irish Water; taxation on wealth, corporate profits and financial transactions to fund the upgrading of water supply services; and a major grant scheme to retrofit homes with water saving devices.
Ms Coppinger described Irish Water as “the bottomless pit which has eaten up €549 million on meters, €89 million on consultants” and millions more on other areas.She said if, as the Minister said, more people were on the registration bandwagon, why did he need to issue a threat on compliance which, she said, he knew could not be implemented.
Refused to pay
Mr Kelly indicated that attachment orders would be introduced on wages and social welfare payments for those who refused to pay.
Independent TD Catherine Murphy said Mr Kelly’s comments had only “hardened attitudes” among people and those who attended the anti-water charges protests on Saturday.
She again highlighted questions on the awarding of water metering contracts and the sale of Siteserv to Millington, and said trying to get information was like "pulling teeth". She said an Australian hedgefund Anchorage had put in a bid for €52 million but wanted a greater level of due diligence. Altra, a French firm made numerous bids to purchase Siteserv "but was told it wasn't for sale".
