‘Paddy now knows the charge’, Hogan says of water tax of €240 average per household

A Government Minister has sharply criticised Irish Water for failing to respond to a TD who contacted the authority a week ago with concerns about water restrictions from algal bloom at Dartry reservoir.

Minister of State Fergus O'Dowd said he was "quite shocked" at the failure of the authority to respond to emails a week ago from Fine Gael Wicklow TD Andrew Doyle about the issue and "it's not good enough frankly".

Unacceptable
Mr Doyle said it was unacceptable when he was acting for a considerable number of people and he warned "you can't pay for water if you can't get it".

The algal bloom has led to restrictions and nightly cut-offs in a number of areas in Co Wicklow.

Criticising the authority, also known as Uisce Éireann, Mr O’Dowd said “one of the key things of Irish Water is to be able to respond on the ground to issues as they’re raised, to ensure that communications are properly and effectively done” and he asked the authority to investigate.

The issue was raised in the Dáil before debate on a Fianna Fáil motion on the water reform package announced yesterday by the Government.

Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan said there was some "honesty in politics at last" in giving "everyone clarity on this issue of water charging at this time. Paddy now knows the charge."

He criticised “hypocritical cant” from Fianna Fáil who he said were now saying the “complete opposite of what their leader signed the country up for when he signed the memorandum of understanding in 2010” for water charges of €400.

He pointed out that the Government subvention to Irish Water in 2015 and 2016 would be conditional on the average charge being no more than €240 per household.

'Alarm bells'
Fianna Fáil's Dara Calleary warned, however, there was still no specific figure for what people would pay as the Government had only produced average costs. Mr Calleary said the range of concessions outlined in the package "will take an estimated €40 million from the Social Protection budget. This raises alarm bells about the impact on other key social welfare supports."

He asked Mr Hogan to give a guarantee that the €100 annual allowance for older people "will not go the same way as the phone allowance and the electricity allowance".

Zero confidence
He said there was "zero confidence in Irish Water, there is still zero political confidence in Irish Water". Mr Calleary also claimed "the charade of the last number of weeks is all about 23rd May [election date] and nothing else. That so-called fight within Government over the level of charges to households has ended up exactly where we were in February 2011 when Labour predicted that Fine Gael would introduce €238" in water charges.

“Labour promised they would stop it.” Consumers however were faced with a minimum charge of €238 if they were lucky and were metered and “in the unmetered that could go up to God knows what amount”.

Earlier, Taoiseach Enda Kenny rejected claims from Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams there were no conservation measures in the Government's proposals.

Mr Kenny said water meters would result in conservation and described water as the most abused natural resource in the country.