People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny has said that the latest attempt in charges for water use is an attempt to resurrect water charges by the backdoor and won’t work.
It is reported in the media today that up to 70,000 households could be facing water charges of up to €500 if they go beyond so called ‘excess use limits’.
Deputy Kenny said that the proposed scheme was seriously flawed and could lead to reigniting the mass anti water charges campaign that stopped the original plans.He pointed out that 40% of households did not have water meters and therefore any attempt to levy excess charges would be based on guess work and was unworkable. The reality of “excess use” he claimed were leaks and a decaying infrastructure. “That is where Irish Water should be concentrating their efforts, not in elaborate schemes that target individual households for a systemic fault”.
“How can the government and Irish Water think about bringing in charges for excess use when our pipe infrastructure is from the Victorian period? Surely the government if they were actually concerned about conserving water would invest the necessary funds into fixing the pipes?”
The TD also warned that the current plans only foresee the allowance being reduced in the years ahead and could thus bring more people into the charges regime.
