Water charges just one policy which is causing a stink in the countryside

THE growing controversy over group water schemes in rural areas is a major embarrassment for the Government. But it is not the only issue that reveals a stark urban-rural divide in the way the Coalition goes about its business.

The operators of group water schemes will be delighted privately that the debacle over Fine Gael's handling of the issue has pushed it way up the political agenda. This will be given added impetus at the first meeting of the newly-formed National Federation of Group Water Schemes in Athlone tomorrow.

The federation links small local schemes reaching 150,000 households in a powerful national lobby for the first time. It will focus its attention on the rural constituencies which are most affected, those found north-west of a line drawn between Dundalk and Limerick.

The meeting will consider whether the federation should run candidates in marginal constituencies such as Mayo, where it could have a decisive impact on the result.

At the heart of the row is a deep-seated feeling of inequity in rural communities, who have been forced to pay for water and refuse services for years while many urban communities have not.

Brendan Howlin's recent announcement that local authorities would no longer charge group schemes for water, far from resolving the inequity, has in fact reinforced it.

This is because about half of the group water schemes in the country draw their water from private sources, such as lakes or wells. People in these schemes are not affected by the changes and will continue to have to pay for their water.

In addition, all those connected to the group schemes, whether sourced from public or private supplies, will continue to pay maintenance charges, something their urban cousins do not have to do.

The abolition of controversial water charges in urban areas was seen as a move to protect the Labour Party's vulnerable left flank, following an impressive performance by the independent socialist candidate, Jim Higgins, in the Dublin West by-election.

It is now proposed to fund such services out of the revenue collected from motor tax. This aspect of the issue has particularly incensed people in rural areas, where motor transport is regarded as a necessity and not a luxury.

Those affected ask why they should subsidise urban dwellers' water, through their motor tax, when they will still have to pay for their own supply.

It is a question the Government will need to answer if it is to avoid a bitter campaign in the run-up to the general election. But it has already opened up a Pandora's Box of rural grievances which will prove difficult to close again.

At least as explosive, in its potential for electoral damage, is the thorny TV deflector issue; A major row over this will develop over the next few weeks as the operators of the unlicensed systems in the west and south switch off, because of the threat of court action.

Overnight, tens of thousands of voters will have to get used to living in three-channel land, as they lose the BBC, UTV and Channel 4 signals they have enjoyed for a modest fee until now.

In order to get them back they will have to pay much more than before.

Few issues are more central to the lives of people than water and television, but education and security issues will also figure prominently in rural areas on election day.

John Bruton moved yesterday to calm fears that more rural Garda stations will be closed or scaled down. Speaking in Limerick, he said he wanted to counter "mischievous attempts in some quarters to imply that the Rural Community Policing Scheme is about to be extended".

The highly-controversial scheme was merely under review, and it would take some time to complete it. "I believe that there has been some misunderstanding over the years about this scheme. It was never designed to close rural Garda stations. It is actually aimed at allowing the gardai spend more time on active operational duties in their districts, including, in particular, visits to the elderly," Mr Bruton said.

But his reassurances will have little impact in places such as south Roscommon, where some Garda stations are now open for only one hour a day as a result of the rural policing scheme.

Together with the post office, the presence of a Garda station in a village is the most visible, outward sign of its continuing viability as a community. As such, it has a social value which far outweighs the economic cost of keeping it open.

What makes sense to an economist, sitting in an office in Dublin and talking about rationalisation, doesn't make any at all in villages fighting for survival in a world where more and more jobs are sucked towards urban centres.

Another problem for the Government is the Minister for Education's ham-fisted attempt to tackle the long-standing problem of substandard accommodation in rural schools.

Ms Breathnach has inflamed passions in places as diverse as Enniscorthy, Co Wexford; Tallaght, Co Dublin; and Ennis, Co Clare; where schools feel their legitimate claims have been ignored.

Her proud declaration of a special £6.5 million allocation to tackle the problem has blown up in her face. Schools on priority action lists for years say they have been "leapfrogged" by other schools, apparently because of the media attention these new schools have attracted.

The other schools, which have played by the book until now, have been quick to learn the lesson that those with the loudest voices are first to be heard. They are lining up to press their claims, and you can expect a lot of shouting between now and the election.