Domestic water charges will not be introduced in Northern Ireland, the minister has said.
In a statement issued on Sunday in advance of an Assembly debate on the issue on Monday, the Department of Infrastructure said the minister, Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd, had “ruled out household water charges as solutions for the future funding of NI Water”.
MLAs are due to debate the challenges facing NI Water, including the “failure of existing water and waste infrastructure to meet current and future demand.”
The motion, proposed by Ulster Unionist MLAs, also calls on the minister to “provide a detailed options paper on restructuring NI Water to include consideration of mutualisation”.
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On Sunday Mr O’Dowd said the “challenges” in water infrastructure were “a consequence of underfunding for basic public services over many years, by successive Tory governments” and “the solution therefore does not lie in charging hard-pressed workers and families for an essential public service”.
He said he was “in no doubt that we can collectively find the solution by truly and demonstrably valuing essential public services such as water and funding them appropriately”.
The introduction of water charges has long been mooted in Northern Ireland but would be deeply unpopular.
Last year the Northern Secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, launched a consultation on water charges as one of several potential revenue-raising measures.
However, the restoration of Northern Ireland’s powersharing government earlier this year means any such decision would be made at Stormont, not Westminster.
In February the First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, told the BBC she was “saying very clearly, no to water charges ... you can’t burden people who are living through a cost-of-living crisis with additional household bills while their services and public services are declining”.
Discussions are ongoing with the UK Treasury about a new, long-term funding model for Northern Ireland.
A report last month by the Northern Ireland Audit Office into the funding of water infrastructure in the North had suffered from decades-long underinvestment compared to other parts of the UK and recent funding shortfalls, and this needed to be addressed to develop a “modern and effective network.”
A “very real consequence” of this underinvestment is that development in 100 areas, including 25 cities and towns, has been restricted due to “insufficient capacity to connect sewerage and waterwater services”, the Auditor General, Dorinnia Carville, said.
The report recommended the Department and NI Water complete a “comprehensive review of the alternative funding and governance arrangements, led by suitably qualified experts”.
It added that the ability of departments to secure appropriate finance to invest in critical infrastructure was a “wider issue than just the water system” and said it was “critical that relevant stakeholders work purposefully towards establishing appropriate arrangements to effectively co-ordinate and manage infrastructure investment across Northern Ireland”.
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