A NEW system of paying for domestic water through metering would be phased in from 2001 to 2010 under a Progressive Democrats government.
In its policy on the environment published yesterday the party proposes that a basic water allowance be provided for each house hold, free of charge. A rate of tariffs would apply to usage above the basic allowance.
According to the party leader Ms Mary Harney, the EU Directive on Water Policy proposes a 10-year implementation period concluding by 2010. In government the Progressive Democrats would immediately begin to put in place the necessary measures to allow metering to be phased in from 2001.
All new houses, public or private, would have to include water meters as part of their specifications. Existing houses, only a minority of which now have meters would have them installed on a rolling programme. The document says this could he financed by spreading the capital cost of installation over a 15-year period.
It does not state what proportion of the cost would be borne by the water provider or by the householder. The party estimates that the price of installing meters can range from £50 to £125 for each house. Mr Michael McDowell. The PD finance spokesman said the capital cost of installation would be minimal when spread over 10 to 15 years.
Speaking at the publication of the environment policy, Ms Harney said she noted with interest comments at the weekend by Fianna Fail's spokesman on the environment, Mr Noel Dempsey, that meters could be installed in homes to measure water use and that a penalty would be imposed where wastage occurred.
In spite of the recent controversy over water charges, Ms Harney said, she believed her party and Fianna Fail could reach common ground in government in their approach to the issue.
Billing the provision of clean domestic water as "an impending crisis", the PD spokeswoman on the environment, Ms Mairin Quill, said the Government's decision last December to abolish charges set Ireland on a totally different course from the rest of the EU "and puts us in direct conflict with the whole thrust of European policy in this area".
According to the policy document, the best way of ensuring equity for rural water-users was to return to the system whereby everybody pays". Rural dwellers had always paid for their water and the only complaints that arose concerned equity.
. Efforts were made by the Progressive Democrats to print their environment policy document on recycled paper, a spokeswoman for the party said.
However, the party could not find a printer in Dublin with the facility to conduct the print run within the time available, she added.
The document appeared on ordinary paper enclosed in a plastic cover.