Sir, - Thank you for publishing praise of water. In the old Dublin County Council. Green Party councillors from time to time proposed that new houses should be required to have water meters for future use. In the new South Dublin County Council I found myself a solitary Green, attached to the FG/Lab majority. The County Manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, insisted that with central funding vanishing, we must charge for water - the price of a pint of Guinness a week, he said.
The majority (small majority) group could not agree, so I changed sides, voting for water, charges on the grounds that (a) councils need local charges, for independence; (b) delivery of pure water is expensive (c) the "double taxation" argument did not hold, because at that time there had been tax cuts which amounted to more than the charge, while those who were not paying tax would not be asked to pay for water either; (d) most other counties paid.
The new majority voted for water charges. They were being efficiently collected until the Government, reacted with what seems to me like cowardice to a noisy campaign. The courts delayed decisions, and finally we were told that all water charges were abolished and we could collect the funds we needed by having more cars on the roads.
I was in Kilmainham for clarification by the Minister for the Environment. It was not only Green councillors who found this solution shortsighted - to say the least. - Yours etc.
Seomra an Chomhairle,
PO Box 4122,
Town Centre, Tallaght.