The Progressive Democrats leader, Ms Mary Harney, has taken a drubbing over her stance on water charges. But she has a strong argument. And she earns points for having the courage to mention the unmentionable - that it was wrong to abolish domestic water charges in the first place. The present Coalition abolished these impositions on householders in Dublin and other urban areas in order to gain political advantage with a highly volatile section of the electorate. Almost immediately, it found itself embroiled in a largely unforeseen controversy, when rural Ireland sensed another act of discrimination and demanded that charges for group water schemes in the countryside should also be abolished, in the interests of fair play.
The Minister for the Environment subsequently announced a package aimed at buying off this vocal, lobby in the hope of protecting the seats of Government deputies as well as staving off a very explicit threat by the Federation of Group Water Schemes to field its own candidates in rural constituencies, some, of them dangerously marginal. It was yet another example of how vulnerable a government can be to special interest groups in the run up to a general election. Yet there was an issue of equity involved; having abolished charges for urban households, Mr Howlin could hardly fail to satisfy rural households.
In the broader perspective of recent history, however, the abolition of water charges has a direct, linear relationship with the notoriously ill advised decision by Fianna Fail to abolish domestic rates in 1978. We are still living with its consequences - notably the emasculation of local government and the consolidation of this small Republic as the most centralised State in the European Union. And despite all the pious talk about devolution in recent years, little has changed; the Devolution Commission, set up by the Taoiseach in 1995, has yet to produce its final report and, even when it does, it is unlikely to change the balance of power.
The provision of fresh, clean drinking water is one of the most vital functions discharged by the local authorities. Even in Ireland, with its relatively high levels of rainfall, water is a scarce resource, as the annual pictures of depleted reservoirs clearly demonstrate. In Dublin, regrettably, it has been estimated that up to 40 per cent of treated water is literally - going down the drain because of untreated leaks in the distribution network. Reducing this level of loss will cost money and, already, over £30 million has been allocated to the task. But the final total is bound to be considerably higher.
The public already pays for gas and electricity with the charges based on the level of consumption. Why should water be treated differently? In most other European countries, households have water meters; Ireland is quite exceptional in regarding water as a "free" resource. It has been estimated that the cost of installing meters in every household would be in the region of £200 million. But even if there was a lengthy payback period, surely it is right that people should make some contribution towards the cost of having water piped to their homes, and that this contribution should be linked directly to how much they actually consume. It would certainly focus minds on the need to conserve this precious, and undervalued, resource.