Coveney to amend water charges legislation after FF objections

Minister for Housing Simon Coveney has been forced to make a series of amendments to legislation allowing for the suspension of water charges after a number of Fianna Fáil objections.

It is understood party leader Micheál Martin and environment spokesman Barry Cowen sought changes to the Water Services (Amendment) Bill.

The party insisted the original legislation does not reflect the agreement reached between the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

Mr Coveney agreed to make a number of technical amendments to the Bill.

He said: “To avoid any confusion in relation to this matter, and subject to the advice of the Attorney General, I am willing to bring forward a Government amendment on committee stage of the Bill to further clarify the charging suspension period and thereby to allay any concerns that liability for domestic water charges may be reintroduced before the finalisation of the deliberative processes and the Oireachtas decision on the future funding model for public water services.”

The original legislation said bills from Irish Water could not be issued from July 1st.

However the proposed amendments clarify the utility cannot issue bills to customers from April 1st.

The legislation does not change the position that water changes can be reintroduced from March 31st next year.

Independent commission

Meanwhile Mr Coveney has confirmed the names of the experts to sit at the independent commission examining the introduction of water charges.

It will have eight independent members and an independent secretariat will be provided by the Institute of Public Administration.

The commission will be chaired by former senator Joe O’Toole, and the other members include Dr Xavier Leflaive of the Environmental Directorate of the OECD; Peter Peacock, Chair of the Customer Forum for Water Scotland, Bill Emery, Chair of the Northern Ireland Utility Regulator, and Brendan O’Mahony, Chair of the National Federation of Group Water Schemes.

The commission will report and present its recommendations to the special Oireachtas committee within five months of its establishment by the end of November.

The committee will have three months to be considered and a vote must take place within a one-month period.

It will take a ministerial order for the suspension to be extended.