Irish Daily Mail

WHY WOULD ANYBODY PAY THEIR WATER CHARGE NOW?

Chaos as FF’s plan to scrap bills scuppers the utility – just as predicted in the Mail last week

- By Ferghal Blaney, Senan Molony and Leah McDonald

IRISH Water was headed for collapse last night as homeowners across the country signalled they would stop paying their water bills.

After leading Independen­t TD Shane Ross said it would be ‘utterly foolish’ of people to continue paying their bills, given that Fianna Fáil has pledged to scrap it for at least five years, respected economist Stephen Kinsella predicted the charge would end

and instead be rolled in with the property tax. A snap poll of 6,000 listeners by RTÉ’s Liveline yesterday indicated that 80% they would not pay the charge, while a poll of 5,400 readers on the Irish Times website indicated that 65% of those currently paying the charge will now stop paying.

Almost half a million people have always refused to pay water charges.

With the prospect of Fianna Fáil forming a coalition with Fine Gael – under the stipulatio­n that Irish Water be dismantled – now looking more like a reality, the issue dominated the airwaves and social media yesterday. Many furious homeowners revealed that they had already contacted Irish Water to cancel their direct debit payments.

As some one million families have paid their water bills, there was outrage among Liveline callers that under a Fianna Fáil abolition of water charges they would not get a refund – a point previously highlighte­d by the Irish Daily Mail.

One man named Thomas even told Joe Duffy on Liveline that if he was not refunded then he would reconsider paying his TV licence, which at €160, is the same as the price of an average annual bill. ‘We’re law-abiding and then we get penalised... this is banana republic territory,’ he said. Homeowners were also confronted with the bizarre situation yesterday where Fianna Fáil TDs urged them to continue paying water charges.

Fianna Fáil veteran Éamon Ó Cuív dubbed Sinn Fein’s approach of urging people not to pay their bills ‘prepostero­us’ and a ‘recipe for anarchy’.

Indeed any compliance with the payment of water bills is now in chaos, yet fellow Fianna Fáil TDs Dara Calleary and Willie O’Dea also urged people to comply with the law and pay their bills even though the party is determined to do away with water charges until at least 2021.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny also insisted that having a national water utility was the right approach as he urged the public to continue to pay their bills.

The Right2Wate­r campaign group, however, called for the immediate abolition of Irish Water once the Dáil resumes next Thursday and said the election had been a referendum on water charges that the Government had lost. Brendan Ogle of the Right2Wate­r said: ‘The election results show that only 37% of those returned to the Dáil are in favour of domestic water charges while 63% oppose them.’

The latest crisis on water charges was prompted after Fine Gael Minister Simon Coveney told RTÉ’s Prime Time on Tuesday that the party would be open to negotiatin­g about Irish Water in talks with other parties.

His comments were taken as a signal that Fine Gael was open to scrapping the deeply unpopular charges, which were implemente­d by former environmen­t minister Phil Hogan.

Mr Coveney said: ‘We’re talking about trying to reflect what people want in Ireland. Some people agree with water charges, other people don’t.’

In what was perceived as a hostage to fortune, he added: ‘We need to take on board, within reason, what (other party negotiator­s) are looking for.’

The Taoiseach tried to undo the dam- age yesterday by stressing that while Fine Gael was prepared to listen to other parties’ views as part of coalition negotiatio­ns, scrapping charges was not on the agenda. He said: ‘In respect of Irish Water, I think it would be a seriously costly and seriously historic mistake to move away from having a single national utility that will provide clean water for the country and the future, and provide services for waste water.’

Mr Coveney himself toughened his stance, saying: ‘A single utility and a fair charging system is the right approach to water in Ireland’.

But Independen­t Alliance TD Shane Ross yesterday said anyone who now questioned whether they should continue paying their charges had a ‘fair point of view’. ‘I think at the moment, with the signal that was sent out yesterday from Simon Coveney, is that they would be utterly foolish to pay those water rates now because they will not be imposed on them. I think that signal has gone out to them.’

Last night, University of Limerick economist Stephen Kinsella predicted that Irish Water would now end up being merged with the Local Property Tax, essentiall­y reintroduc­ing the 1970s rates regime. ‘Where I see this playing out is that Irish Water will end up being folded back into the Department of the Environmen­t,’ Mr Kinsella told the Irish Daily Mail.

‘Then water charges will become part of the LPT – and will be billed along with it – and then we basically simply have rates again, we’re back in 1976,’ the respected economist added.

RTÉ’s Liveline was yesterday inundated with calls from payers and nonpayers, all of whom said they would need clarity as the future of the company now looks in doubt.

Paddy Loftus, a homeowner based in Co. Mayo, told Joe Duffy he contacted Irish Water to cancel his direct debit, saying the ‘battle for Irish Water is over’.

Another homeowner, Grace Bell, from Sandyford, south Dublin, said she paid her water bills but received another bill last week and now has ‘no intention of paying it on the basis of what is happening at the moment’.

THE already-bizarre saga of Irish Water has now taken a fresh turn. Last week, the Irish Daily Mail was the first paper to point out that while Fianna Fáil, if in power, would suspend water charges, it would not refund responsibl­e citizens who registered and paid the bills.

This ludicrous position is not only still the case, but the party now also says everyone should continue to pay the charges they owe when the bills are issued, even though those who never paid will face no sanction whatsoever.

It is as insane as encouragin­g investment in Anglo Irish Bank in September 2008. Why would anyone continue to pay water charges when the future of Irish Water itself is so unclear? Indeed, why should they? The Irish Water debacle was one of the many factors that sank the outgoing coalition. Fianna Fáil needs to tread carefully unless it wishes to become the focus of fresh protest, only this time from those who, instead of assaulting meter installers and gardaí, did the right thing first time around and now wonder why they are being treated as mugs.

 ??  ?? How the Mail led the way: Last week’s story on water charges, above left, and Tuesday’s revelation, above right
How the Mail led the way: Last week’s story on water charges, above left, and Tuesday’s revelation, above right

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