A call was made in the Dáil to suspend proceedings on the water charges legislation because it could not be confirmed whether there would be a net income or deficit to the State for implementing the water charges.
During a confused discussion lasting more than an hour and a half, Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly was repeatedly asked to clarify the precise cost of billing each household annually for water charges.
Mr Kelly said: “The cost of collecting the revenue is less than the revenue collected.”
Independent TD Stephen Donnelly called for the suspension when he said it looked like it would cost the State to charge for water and no TD wanted to support such a legislative proposal.
Alan in Wonderland
Independent TD
Tommy Broughan
said they were in “Alan in Wonderland” territory and there was a “very fundamental deficit” of information about the income and costs.
Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins said it was "Fine Gael and Labour in Blunderland".
Independent TD Peter Mathews called on the government to “stop”.
He said: “You don’t know what you’re doing. It’s a black hole and irresponsible to continue when you don’t know where you’re going” and what the costs were.
Mr Kelly had said there were 1.3 million primary dwellings but Mr Donnelly said there were 1.66 million unique households.
“At the moment we’re searching for 700,000 houses,” said Mr Higgins.
Mr Donnelly had asked for specific information about the costs to the State. He said that income from water charges would be €271 million, but the costs of the €100 conservation grant were €160 million and he estimated the charge for billing each household based on international comparisons would be €60 for each household every year and €120 million in total.
Mr Kelly said the grant would cost €130 million based on “the best estimate of the analysis by Government”. He insisted the figure of 1.3 million households was very clear and the Opposition was not taking in factors such as holiday homes and vacant houses.
Independent TD Róisín Shortall asked if it was the case that once Irish Water started charging for water in January, Ireland's derogation from the EU water directive to collect the entire cost of water supply would end.
Earlier Mr Kelly told TDs he would introduce an amendment to strengthen the wording to guarantee the holding of a plebiscite should a future government and Dáil decide to privatise Irish Water.
He refused an amendment from Independent TD Denis Naughten that every municipal authority would have to vote to agree to privatisation but said he would look at changing “may” to “shall” to ensure there would be a plebiscite if any future government took that decision.
Sharp exchanges
During Leaders’ Questions there were sharp exchanges between Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Brendan Howlin
and Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald, when she said a general election was needed because the Government would not abolish the water charges.
“The Minister cannot waltz in here, as delusional as all of the members of the Government are, and pretend that the Government’s mandate is still intact.”
Mr Howlin said Sinn Féin wanted a general election but “in terms of policy-making, it is not a general election so much as a by-election that determines Sinn Féin policy”.
He said the party and Ms McDonald were “minded” to pay the water charges until the last byelection.
