Micheál Martin denies doing U-turn on water charges

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has insisted the party has not performed a U-turn on its position on water charges.

Mr Martin and his party have been accused on altering its position on the abolishing the levies.

He said Fianna Fáil’s general election manifesto committed to scrapping water charges and that had not changed.

Mr Martin said their position was consistent with that expressed in the election manifesto.

Fianna Fáil has proposed that the water system be paid for through general taxation and that the principle of charging for usage should be abolished for good.

The party made the proposals in a statement to the commission on how water services should be funded.

It marks a move away from its previous position that charges should only be suspended, as it argued in its negotiations with Fine Gael earlier this year to facilitate a minority government led by Enda Kenny.

Fianna Fáil, which accepted the principle of water charges as part of the troika’s bailout package, had also previously argued that domestic charges should only be suspended until such time as the national water infrastructure could be brought up to standard.

Its submission to the Expert Commission on Domestic Public Water Services - established as part of the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael deal - says the entire system should be funded through general taxation by way of direct subvention from the exchequer.