Irish Water’s €5.7m interest bill for meters that are now largely useless
IRISH Water is paying a €5.7m annual interest bill on a loan for water meters which may only ever be used to estimate water usage.
The interest is accruing on a €300m loan from a taxpayerbacked fund for the meters which have been largely redundant so far.
Income to pay the loan can only come from water charges or general taxation which means the taxpayer is effectively paying itself for meters that a large portion of the populace don’t want.
The beleaguered utility company also paid €10m to the government as ‘protection’ for the
Meter programme has been stalled
€300m loan from the National Pension Reserve Fund.
Irish Water has installed around 900,000 domestic meters but the programme has now been stalled.
The Irish Mail on Sunday understands that during the talks between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on their confidence and supply arrangement, an FG minister accepted water meters would become ‘Fine Gael’s e-voting machines’.
The comment refers to the ill-fated and costly attempt to introduce e-voting by Fianna Fáil in the Noughties, which led to an ongoing cost for the storage of the machines despite the policy being informally shelved.
Irish Water was unable to confirm to the MoS how much the metering programme cost. The meters have only been used to take samples of water usage rates across the country.
At the outset, it was estimated the entire programme would cost €539m.
In a statement to the MoS, the company said it had €1.3bn in total borrowing facilities.
‘Approximately €1bn of this has already been drawn down,’ said a spokesman. ‘This includes €300m borrowed from Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, which replaced the National Pension Reserve Fund.
The company had an additional €150m funding facility from the ISIF for its metering programme which Irish Water says has not been drawn down.
Asked what interest it was paying on its metering loan, Irish Water refused to comment saying it was ‘commercially sensitive’ information.
However a Comptroller & Auditor General report, freely available online, reveals the rate to be 1.9%. This means annual interest of €5.7m is paid to the taxpayer-backed ISIF – by the taxpayer.
‘As Irish Water is a start-up utility, our facilities are shortterm in nature. All borrowing is currently renewed on a rolling one-year basis but in the longer term we would expect to finance on a longer term basis,’ said a spokesman.
However, Fianna Fáil Environment spokesman Barry Cowen says the public has a right to know how much taxpayers’ money is being spent at the utility.
‘This all goes back to the mess that was created in the rush to get Irish Water off the blocks. The whole thing was illthought out and ill-advised, despite the millions spent on consultants and now the taxpayer is left picking up the tab.’
Cowen, who sits on the Oireachtas Committee on the future funding of Irish Water, also said there would be no further metering until the committee approves a plan.
The Commission for Energy Regulation has warned the cost of completing meter installation will cripple efforts to improve water quality and supply.
Alan Farrell, Fine Gael TD for Dublin Fingal, who also sits on the Oireachtas Committee said: ‘I’ve no doubt that the meters will continue to be used in the future and will help us monitor the way we consume water. Which is what they were intended for in the first place.’
No money has been put in Irish Water’s 2017/18 capital budget to finish metering.
‘Taxpayer is left picking up the tab’