Fallout from water charges a current issue

It is fitting that today the overarching issues are some of those that have dominated political discourse over the past few years.

There is the continuing fallout from the water charges debacle, and the abortion issue is again to the fore: Pat Leahy reports in politics that Ireland will not give a commitment to the United Nations to change its abortion laws.

This comes a week after Minister for Health Simon Harris authorised a €30,000 award to Amanda Mellet. She suffered a fatal foetal abnormality during her pregnancy and took a case against Ireland to the UN.

And then there is Bertie Ahern. Fiach Kelly follows up with a classic political story about the nerviness and divisions within Fianna Fáil about his possible return to the fold.

Ahern spoke to Kelly last night and confirmed an interest in rejoining, so as to help the party regain a seat in Dublin Central, a constituency where he ruled the roost for over a quarter of a century.

A few privately would like to start fattening the calf. Their attitude is: Let him back in, take the hit and move on. Others feel more nervous, and among the latter is party leader Micheal Martin.

There is no doubt there is a marked attachment for the former taoiseach, despite his defenestration by the Mahon tribunal.

And the fallout from water? A cascade of it. The report of the expert commission was always going to be a pin cushion of all the vested interests. The unhappy brigade (for very different reasons) including Sinn Féin, the Alphabet Alliance, the EU Commission, Labour, Fianna Fáil and business organisations. Even Fine Gael (or its backbench TDs) is unhappy.

So the commission achieved a level of equity and balance by making everybody browned off.

If this is the way forward, it is definitely going to be referred by the EU Commission to the European Court of Justice for breaching the Water Framework Directive.

The State as the sole customer of Irish Water stretches the notion of a domestic water charging system to breaking point.

But the far-left opponents have also got a grievance. Charges have not been abolished completely. Some kind of measure will have to be used to calibrate wasteful usage (a water meter anybody?). The energy regulator will define that.

As time goes on, that threshold can be reduced so charges can be increased and widened as they were for bin charges.

There are elements that are spurious in the arguments advanced by the protesters. A quarter of people are in private water schemes and pay for water on the double under the general taxation scheme.

The AAA-PBP did not even consider that cohort until very late in the day. Yesterday’s admission by Paul Murphy that he paid water charges while living in Brussels makes you wonder as to how committed he is to this principle.

If he is so strongly against them, why did he pay in Belgium without a whimper? And why did he capitulate so easily to paying property taxes on his apartment after opposing them so vehemently in street protests. He talked yesterday about ‘tactics’ which he needs to explain more.

That all certainly adds to the argument advanced by opponents that the AAA-PBP have used water charges as a vehicle to mobilise support for their ‘people power’ form of street democracy.

The age of populism does not just manifest itself on the left but also on the right.

And there is another potential bit of mutineering happening, this time in Fine Gael. The leadership of the party, and of Fianna Fáil, has been wishy-washy about giving refunds to those households who complied with water charges.

No such indecision affected Fine Gael backbenchers last night who argued trenchantly that those who paid should get full refunds. Here is Sarah Bardon’s report.

Otherwise, the message would go out that to disobey a societal rule will bring not a sanction but a reward.

To his credit, the AAA-PBP TD Mick Barry argued for the same refund - but of course coming from a different perspective.

Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship

How do we begin our last free political digest?

“We are going to build a big (pay) wall and make you pay for it.”

No, a bit too direct.

“We are installing a meter but will charge only for excessive leaks from the biggest drips in Leinster House.”

Erm, a bit too close for comfort.

Ah, look who is hoving into view only the Bert himself. Only four years after being cast into exile, he has worked his way back into the centre of things, apparently by osmosis.

Would he become a subscriber, we asked: “I’m not answering what I got for my Holy Communion money, my Confirmation money, what I got for my birthday, what I got for anything else, I’m not into that.”

Yep, we have gone and upset the apple tart.

Hopefully he will come around to tapping in those three CVV digits.

From next Tuesday the digest will be available to Irish Times subscribers only. As free lunches (or, more accurately, breakfasts) go, it was not a bad innings, having lasted two years.

We started the digest two Christmases ago. Five of us have shared the burden of very late nights (I’m writing this at 12.40am) followed by very early mornings (I’ll be back up at 6.20am). They are: Mary Minihan, Fiach Kelly, Sarah Bardon, myself and, since this year, deputy political editor Pat Leahy.

It has been the first emailed political digest in Ireland, and each morning we have tried to set out what is important in the world of politics. None of us are Miriam Lords, but we do try to spike it with a bit of humour (not always successfully).

For those 11,100 people who have subscribed to the email service, thank you very much for your support, your feedback and your loyalty.

From Tuesday, the email will be available to all current digital subscribers of The Irish Times.

For those of you who are not, you should seriously think about a digital subscription, which will mean access to all Irish Times content. If you have a block about paying, rethink it. The cost is nominal. What you get aspires to phenomenal.

Play it again Sam.