WATER CHARGES, NORTH AND SOUTH | NEW TAX FLOATED BY FINE GAEL, LABOUR AND ALLIANCE PARTY

Big bills for water in the pipeline

Sinn Féin takes the campaign against water charges to the Dáil

FAMILY INCOMES in the 26 Counties are to be hit by an annual €175 bill from the Fine Gael/Labour Government for water regardless of household income.
The charge will be introduced in the next two years.
Both Labour and Fine Gael told voters before the election that they would not bring in domestic water charges. Fine Gael said it would not consider the new tax before a metering system was in place. Now they are saying the EU/IMF bail-out is forcing this extra charge on families by 2012/2013.
Work on installing meters is scheduled to start next year and take four years to complete. In the meantime, the creaking waterpipes network is riddled with leaks, causing huge wastage and is in need of a massive overhaul.
Sinn Féin Social Protection spokesperson Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD said that families cannot afford a further domestic bill and “water poverty” will be the next social crisis:
“Domestic water charges were abolished in 1996 for a good reason. A flat rate charge for water is simply a tax by a different name. It is regressive in the extreme. It serves no environmental purpose and it will be resisted, as it was in the early 1990s.”
The Dublin TD said that both Government parties were elected on a promise that they would not introduce a flat charge for water and that a flat rate charge would be unfair.
“Not only is it unfair it is unaffordable,” Aengus Ó Snodaigh said.
“The fact that 150,000 households are behind on their ESB bills is evidence that families simply cannot afford another utility bill. If water charges are introduced the ‘energy poor’ will shortly be ‘water poor’ as well.”
And he said that metered charges should be scrapped too.
“The Government plans to install meters in every household at a cost of €1billion by borrowing €500million from the National Pension Reserve Fund. It would take between 20 and 33 years for a return to be made on this investment.”
He said that fixing the water distribution network would more than pay for itself and generate savings.
“This should be the priority rather than household meters or charges.”
Meanwhile, in the North, Sinn Féin Fermanagh & South Tyrone Assembly members Phil Flanagan and Seán Lynch have said that Sinn Féin in government has delivered on its pledge to block water charges and will continue to do so in the new Assembly and Executive.
Phil Flanagan said:
“In our 2007 manifesto, Sinn Féin promised to block the introduction of water charges for households and that is exactly what we did. In this year’s Assembly manifesto we pledge to do the same again and commit to do this whilst other parties try to soften up householders for the introduction of water charges and privatisation of this vital service.
“Just because a handful of economists believe that water charges should be introduced based on the amount of revenue it would generate for Government does not make it right, nor does it justify the pressures that would be put on struggling households as a result.”
Seán Lynch added:
“The Alliance Party is in full support of water charges. The SDLP wants to mutualise NI Water and bring in water charges by the back door.
“People should not be fooled by this. They should look at the example of Welsh Water, which is a mutualised company, and charges customers £411 annually - which is actually higher than the average charges for privatised companies in Britain! The SDLP’s proposals will inevitably lead to water charges and that is why Sinn Féin will block any such proposals at the Executive.”
Seán Lynch said that people already pay for their water through their rates and any double taxation proposals from other parties are “totally unjust no matter how they dress them up”.
He highlighted the fact that many households are already struggling to deal with rising fuel costs, rising food costs, negative equity on their homes and unsympathetic banks.
“Water charges should not be added to that list and Sinn Féin is the only major party opposed outright to their introduction.”