Suspension of water charges may entail fines, warns EC

Ireland could face significant fines "pretty quickly" that could cost the State tens of thousands of euro daily because of the decision to suspend water charges, the European Commission has said.

The commission is “extremely frustrated” at the State’s failure to lodge a major plan to govern Ireland’s water resources over coming days, which was due in December 2015.

It has directly linked the delay in filing the River Basin Management Plan to the ongoing political debate over the future of Irish Water and the imposition of water charges.

The commission will now request information from the Government before moving on to enforcement proceedings, unless it gets clarity from Ireland that water supplies will come with a charge.

Daily fines could be enforced that could lead to a multimillion-euro bill. Ireland was fined €12,000 every day for failing to comply with a waste water directive.

The move comes after the commission insisted Ireland cannot abolish water charges without breaking the water framework directive, which Ireland has already signed.

Flexibility ended

In response to queries from Sinn Féin MEP

Lynn Boylan

, the commission said the flexibility that had been offered to Ireland not to impose charges is no longer available because Ireland had decided to levy them.

The correspondence from the commission states that EU member states cannot breach the directive, adding that Ireland must abide by“polluter pays” and have rules that recover the costs of supplying water.

However, Ms Boylan said the commission had been “embarrassed into publishing a vague response”. The Government could abolish water charges if there was political will.

Derogation possible

Ms Boylan said: “Ireland still has the possibility to use the derogation from water pricing as many other regions and countries have done across the

European Union

. It is clear that cost recovery does not require water pricing, as is the case in Scotland.”

Former minister for the environment Alan Kelly rejected the Sinn Féin position and said the declaration proved abolishing water charges was not an option and was illegal.

Mr Kelly said the derogation offered to Ireland lapsed in 2010 when the then-Fianna Fáil government committed to water charges.

He said: "I hope Fianna Fáil spokesman Barry Cowen, who was central to hatching the deal his party cobbled together with Fine Gael, takes note of today's declaration.

“Just a few weeks ago, he was claiming that it was ‘entirely legal to end water charges’.

“He was wrong then, and he’s wrong now. Fianna Fáil says it has legal advice to contradict this. Publish it then.”

Replying, Mr Cowen said Fianna Fáil would not publish its legal advice. He said the party was committed to abolishing water charges and would work with the Dáil to achieve a consensus on the issue.