Stephen Collins: Fianna Fáil stance on Irish Water is about politics not policy

The interminable wrangle over Irish Water has put the public good at the mercy of political expediency. Whatever happens next serious damage has already been inflicted on the plans to provide a modern, safe and efficient system for the provision of water to the public.

The primary responsibility for the mess must rest with Fianna Fáil, which has elevated its policy position on Irish Water into a deal-breaker for the formation of a new government.

It is understandable that the main opposition party would want to extract a stiff price for supporting a minority Fine Gael government but its determination to destroy Irish Water's capacity to raise revenue as part of that price is inexplicable.

It appears that Fianna Fáil ratcheted up the pressure on the issue as part of a plan to humiliate Enda Kenny and make him eat as much humble pie as possible before allowing him to be re-elected as taoiseach.

A key part of the political equation is the calculation by Fianna Fáil that Kenny is now so weakened that he has no choice to give way if he wants to survive as party leader and achieve his aim of becoming the first Fine Gael leader to be elected taoiseach for two successive terms.

Feeding into this is the view that Fine Gael cannot face into another election with Kenny as leader and so has no choice but to allow Fianna Fáil a victory on water.

The coming days will tell if these calculations are well grounded, but whatever happens the events of the past week or so do not augur well for the operation of a Fine Gael-led minority government.

Some in Fine Gael believe there is no point giving way on Irish Water as an election will happen sooner rather than later in any case.

“An election is the last thing we need but what is the point of remaining in power if we are going to be held hostage on one issue after another,” said one party TD.

There is also the fact that the Irish State is under an obligation to implement the EU Water Framework Directive to maintain in place a charging system for water to ensure that people use water resources efficiently.

A brazen breach of this directive would inevitably cost the Irish taxpayer an enormous amount in fines.

Score-settling

Whether or not Kenny ultimately gives way or Fianna Fáil backs off rather than risk an election on the water issue, the net impact of the political score-settling exercise has been to do serious damage to the ability of the new water utility to do its job.

Whatever the flaws in the establishment of Irish Water, all the evidence suggests that the company has already made significant inroads into solving some of the long-term problems that have bedevilled the public water system for decades.

Back in 2014, before Irish Water was set up, almost 50 per cent of drinking water in the public system was lost through leaks, a third of major waste-treatment plants were overloaded, two-thirds of sewers were in need of repair, and almost one million citizens were supplied with water through treatments plants at risk of contamination.

This included 270,000 supplied from the Stillorgan reservoir in Dublin with no ultraviolet treatment to provide disinfection.

The Vartry tunnel, built in the 1860s to supply the Stillorgan reservoir, was at risk of collapse, and was identified as needing repair since the 1990s.

Victorian sewers in the major cities were also at risk of collapse, with no maintenance programme in place since the 1960s, and almost 500,000 were at risk from excess lead in drinking water

At least 23,000 were having to boil water before they could use it, many of them having to do so for years.

In its three years in existence Irish Water has started to tackle these enormous problems. Almost 300,000 have been removed from the Environmental Protection Agency’s “at risk” drinking water register and over 500km of the worst water mains repaired.

The utility has installed 820,000 meters, implemented a water-charging system and over the first nine-month period has managed to improve payment levels from 35 per cent to over 60 per cent.

Stopped paying

Already there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that many who have paid their water bills up to now have stopped paying to see what happens next.

If the charges are suspended for five years, as Fianna Fáil is demanding, the prospect of people paying under a new billing system in the future is open to question.

Fianna Fáil negotiators make no secret of the fact that their aim is to end water charges for good and it looks as if they may get their way.

How this issue came to be the Fianna Fáil deal-breaker in the talks on the formation of government is hard to fathom. Fianna Fáil is trying to protect its flank against Sinn Féin and the other anti-charges campaigners but it could lose more than it gains if the perception grows that it has abandoned those who have paid.

In theory the party supports the notion that those who haven’t paid up to now will be chased for the bills during a five-year suspension period but that is simply not feasible

It is hard to disagree with the views of Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly who yesterday accused Fianna Fáil of engaging in environmental, economic and political sabotage.

Stephen Collins is Political Editor