Commission pressing for return of water charges

The Government is under renewed pressure from the European Commission to reintroduce domestic water charges, it emerged at a conference on EU cohesion fund investment in Ireland.

The Commission will not relent in its demand that charges be applied in the only member-state where they do not apply, according to Mr Jean-Francois Verstrynge, the former cohesion fund director, now environment deputy director general.

While the EU is holding off on trying to force the Government's hand by legal means, it is understood the proposed Water Framework Directive will require full application of the "polluter pays" approach. This will make it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to resist their reintroduction.

In a meeting yesterday with the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, prior to the conference, Mr Verstrynge said refusing to have such charges "is not an environmentally-friendly position".

"We have insisted on these charges for the past two years and will continue to do so," Mr Verstrynge told The Irish Times. "We understand there is a political difficulty. We have proposed that the problem be solved with the Water Framework Directive which is being discussed in the Council of Ministers."

He added: "Irish consumers have to understand that if they want water to be free, they can drink the water that comes from the sky."

Mr Dempsey told delegates, who included EU, Government and local authority officials and public representatives, that water charges were "an intensely political issue" and not just a matter of the polluter pays. He indicated to Mr Verstrynge there was no going back on the political decision to drop charges, but said the EU was "doing its best" to force the issue.

Mr Verstrynge said, nonetheless, some £1 billion in cohesion funds had been well spent on Irish projects. "Ireland has done a fantastic job, so fantastic that in a few years we are going to have to cut off the money."

The main failure, however, was in changing the consumer mindset on the environment. This was indicated by lack of success in getting the public to accept the notion of "polluter pays"; the need to segregate and reduce waste and to stop pollution of rivers and lakes with phosphorus wastes from farming sources. The EU would support any information initiative to overcome this.

Environment was not about "beautiful hills to go for a rest at weekends, it's about what you are doing every day," he said. "If you don't accept your responsibilities, the problem will not be solved."

If Irish people were going to continue with the ridiculous idea that water came free from the sky, then that's what they should drink.

"If Irish farmers continue to use fertilisers the way they do, no matter how much we spend on phosphorus-reduction and waste water facilities, your rivers and lakes will continue to be polluted."