Water charges and the costs of running Irish Water are a more controversial issue than last year's legislation on abortion, the Dáil has heard.
Independent TD Noel Grealish also predicted that eventually Irish Water would cost more than the HSE to run and said he believed people would be paying an average €1,000 a year for water within a decade.
He also said people were asking why the Government did not just add €100 to the property tax for water services and save the cost of establishing the utility.
The Galway West TD was speaking during the Committee Stage of the Irish Water Services Bill 2014, which gives effect to the changes announced by the Government to the charging regime and the operation of Irish Water.
Resigning
Mr Grealish said that in his constituency the charges were “even bigger than the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill” – the legislation to allow for pregnancy terminations – that resulted in a number of Fine Gael TDs resigning from the party.
He cited the costs of establishing Irish Water, the number of managers and the bonuses being paid.
“I think there’s 90 managers on over €100,000 a year. Also they’re getting €10,000 a year car bonus.
“That is the big talking issue out there amongst the Irish people: the costs of setting it up and the costs of running it.”
He warned that people believed the costs of running Irish Water would be “bigger than the costs of running the HSE eventually, with all the managers and workers being employed”.
Consultants
The former Progressive Democrats TD asked how could anyone justify or explain €80 million spent on consultants alone to set up the utility.
He said charges might be low now for water but in 10 years’ time the charges would be “a lot higher than €60 and it’ll be a lot higher than €160”.
He said a lot of people accepted the property tax. They registered their property and paid it, and they said “why wasn’t another €100 put on the property tax to cover for water services instead of setting up this utility”.
Give it another five or 10 years and the average house would be paying €1,000 for water and between €3,000 and €6,000 property tax. “And what will they get out of it: nothing.”
