The Government is moving – slowly – towards an announcement on water charges, with indications that a final plan will be unveiled next week. Amid all the fierce debate on the issue, there is a risk that some of the key principles will be forgotten. Above all, what the Government must avoid is some kind of patchwork solution which gradually unravels in the months ahead.
The initial idea of the water charges was to put a new structure in place to help fund the necessary infrastructure investment over a period of years, in an affordable way. It is difficult to keep count of the mistakes made in trying to put this in place, but they fall under two broad headings. The first was the lack of priority in the setting up of Irish Water given to delivering the most efficient and cost effective service to the public, as quickly as possible. The second was the whole issue of what the charges would be and the lack of clarity for households on what costs they might face, and when.
In responding to the outcry against the charges, the Government cannot keep everyone happy. Nor should it try to. What is needed now is clarity, a clear direction for the future and something which households can afford to pay. The Government has, as part of this, to make fundamental changes to Irish Water itself. A new board is due to be appointed and this is the first step to bringing clear accountability. Throughout the organisation the focus must be on delivering an efficient service at the lowest possible cost. The way Irish Water was established has already got us off to a bad start. The public must be reassured that, over a short period, costs can be reduced to international norms.
Then there are the charges. Clarity and affordability are required, along with some incentive to conserve water. There is a tricky balance here. The Government needs enough cash from charges to keep Irish Water as an entity separate from the state for EU purposes, but it has a clear message from the public in terms of the squeeze on household budgets.
The alternative to pushing ahead – scrapping the charges and bringing the whole thing back into the State’s budget – would mean less public spending or more taxes elsewhere. Care needs to be taken that the whole structure is not likely to be rejected by the EU statistics body, Eurostat, next spring, creating uncertainty about Ireland’s budget. Given the current pressures, this is a real risk.
The Government is coming from behind here. It needs a detailed and clearly argued case if it is to start winning back support from voters and guarantee the required investment for the future. The hugely detailed work being done now should, of course, have been done before anything was announced to the public, rather than afterwards. Nobody took charge and that was a significant failure.