Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan is adamant a flat-rate household charge will be introduced from the beginning of next year, despite statements by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste that it has not yet been agreed by Cabinet.
Fianna Fáil accused the Government of creating “utter confusion” with the apparent contradiction.
However, a spokeswoman for Mr Hogan insisted last night there was no confusion and the charge would come into effect on January 1st next.
She said the money would be required to fund local services following the impact of the public expenditure review on the Department of the Environment budget.
“The Tánaiste is correct to say that the charge has not yet been agreed by Cabinet but the Minister for the Environment is clear that it has to happen and it has to happen from January.”
Under the terms of the EU-IMF bailout a household charge will have to come into effect in 2012 and be increased in 2013.
The charge will initially be a flat-rate one, pending the introduction of a nationwide site valuation tax which will take some time to devise.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny appeared to diverge from his Minister when he was asked by journalists yesterday when the charge would come into effect. “The renegotiated wording of the IMF-EU deal says: sometime during the period of the programme, which runs to 2013.
But the Government have not made a decision in regard to this yet and when the Government do make a decision on that obviously everybody will know about it,” said Mr Kenny.
He said the Minister had been signalling the Government’s intention of following through on the programme for government and the conditions attached to the bailout deal.
“These proposals from the Minister will come before the Government shortly and will be announced as a result of a Cabinet decision,” said Mr Kenny, speaking at the end of a joint news conference at Government Buildings with visiting Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban.
Earlier Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said the Government had not considered a household charge although it had been agreed in the programme for government that there would be a metered arrangement for water.
Fianna Fáil spokesman on public expenditure Michael McGrath said that there was now utter confusion in Government about the charge.
“People at home want to know where they stand and whether they will be paying this charge from the beginning of next year.” He said the Minister had been contradicted by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste less than 24 hours after Mr Kenny had slapped down another Minister for speaking out of turn.
“If the parties in Government cannot agree on measures that should have been put to bed at this stage it doesn’t augur well for the big decisions that face them in the months ahead,” added Mr McGrath.
He said that the latest controversy was ominous, coming in the wake of an orchestrated campaign by Labour Party TDs last week against proposals from Minister for Enterprise and Employment Richard Bruton.