THE Government parties have seized on the disarray within the potential Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrat coalition over water charges to launch a pre election attack on the proposed alternative government.
After the PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, said she would consider reintroducing water charges if elected to government, her party and Fianna Fail spent much of yesterday trying to minimise the divergence between the parties and apparent differences within the Progressive Democrats.
Labour and Democratic Left, however, accused Ms Harney of being at odds on the issue with Fianna Fail and with her own party colleague, Mr Bobby Molloy.
Earlier this year, Mr Molloy gave a commitment to invest £23 million in group water schemes to ensure that rural as well as urban dwellers did not have to pay for water. Fianna Fail also supports the Government decision last December to abolish water charges, and wants to fund the abolition of charges for those using rural group water schemes.
Yesterday evening Ms Harney issued a statement in an attempt to clarify her position, but declined requests for interviews. Mr Molloy declined to comment on the matter, referring queries to his party's press office.
Ms Harney's statement repeated that domestic water should not be provided free. The Government's scheme to abolish charges and to build and upgrade reservoirs and water schemes could cost £980 million over 10 years, she said.
"In this context we must ask ourselves whether the Irish taxpayer can afford to deliver on the Government's promises ... Making all domestic water free in unlimited quantities is a shortsighted, self destructive step which no other country in our circumstances would contemplate."
The PDs also circulated a statement yesterday, issued by Mr Molloy last week, outlining the party's estimate of the cost of the Government's water charges package. This statement, however, expressed no view on whether urban water charges should be reintroduced or rural ones abolished.
The Labour Minister of State Ms Joan Burton and the Democratic Left chairwoman, Ms Catherine Murphy, called on Fianna Fail to say whether it agreed with Ms Harney's view that water charges should not have been abolished and could be reintroduced.
Fianna Fail, however, was eager to avoid an embarrassing public disagreement with its potential government partner on the issue. A spokesman would not comment directly on Ms Harney's statement but implicitly diverged from the PD position. His party accepted the Government decision to abolish urban water charges, and believed there should now be equity between rural and urban consumers of water.
A Fianna Fail policy document on local government to be published in the next few weeks is expected to accept the abolition of urban water charges and will contain proposals for the abolition of payments by those using rural water schemes.
On RTE's Morning Ireland programme yesterday, Ms Harney said that her party had not favoured the abolition of water charges. "Indeed if we were in Government we would have to revisit that particular subject because I don't think the right decision was made."