Water charges 'will aid conservation'

Families will be able to avoid paying controversial new water charges due to be introduced as early as next year if they conserve water, Minister for Environment Phil Hogan has said.

SMr Hogan announced yesterday that householders are facing a flat-rate household charge from January 1st, with domestic water metering to follow.

Speaking as he opened an Environmental Protection Agency seminar on waste prevention in Dublin today, Mr Hogan said "generous" free water allowances would allow for washing and preparation of food and drinks.

But he warned any waste of water such as households not attending to a leaky tap or a burst pipe would mean the households involved would have to pay for the extra water.

Mr Hogan said he could not say what amounted to a "generous" water allowance, maintaining : "I have always said this was a water conservation measure".

The previous government had been considering granting a free a personal allowance of 40 litres, and an inaugural summit on water metering yesterday heard proposals for a personal allocation of 60 litres. An adult in Ireland is believed to use more then 100 litres a day on average.

Mr Hogan said while water conservation rather than revenue generation was at the heart of the decision to install universal domestic water meters from next year,  the State could still benefit financially even if everyone lived within their water allowance.

The savings would be achieved through a reduction in the amount of water produced, in repair of leaks and in environmental terms through less carbon emissions from water processing and delivery.

Earlier Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he could not say what the proposed two new annual bills for property and water will cost householders.

Mr Kenny said the Government had not made a decision about “the nature or scale” of the charges yet. He told the Dáil today that Mr Hogan had signalled the Government’s intention to implement the programme for government and comply with the conditions of the EU-IMF bailout deal.

The Taoiseach was replying to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, who said hundreds of thousands of people were coming to terms with the prospect of two new “stealth taxes”.

Despite all the pre-election promises by the Labour Party, new water and household charges would be introduced, Mr Adams added. He urged the Taoiseach to tell people what the new charges would cost them. Noting that Mr Hogan had said the purpose of the water tax was to reduce water usage, Mr Adams said 40 per cent of water was lost because of leaking pipes.

Yesterday, Mr Hogan said he was awaiting the results of a comprehensive departmental spending review in order to determine the exact amount of the flat-rate household charge. The previous government had intended to introduce a fixed charge of €100 per annum next year, with a value-based addition being introduced in 2013. If that figure was levied on the State’s 1.8 million households, up to €180 million could be raised in a year.