If the State is going to meet most Irish Water bills, then people living in rural Ireland who have their own septic tanks should receive a State grant to pay for the costs of dealing with sewage, a Minister of State has said.
Sean Canney also said that if Irish Water is to refund customers who have already paid for drinking water, then equal refunds must be made to those who paid for private group water schemes.
Mr Canney said it would be unfair if hundreds of small estates and thousands of individual homes in rural Ireland were faced with often significant costs of running small treatment plants, and were then forced to pay for water services a second time through general taxation.
He said the push for water charges to be paid for out of general taxation was “coming from Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil, but has not been thought through”.
“If you do introduce payment by general taxation, what do you say to those people who are already paying now” asked Mr Canney, who represents Galway East. “Something must be done to equalise the situation. People are already paying for waste water at the moment and we need to be fair to everyone.”
He said the situation needs to be addressed by the Oireachtas committee set up to consider the report of the expert group on water charges.
Subsidised schemes
Some 350 drinking water schemes in the National Federation of Group Water Schemes have been subsidised by the Government since July, in a bid to reflect the suspension of charges for Irish Water customers announced at that time.
But while the move has installed some equality of treatment, Mr Canney said any refunds to Irish Water customers who paid before July, should also see refunds being made to those who paid for their water through private group schemes.
He said the Oireachtas committee would “have to consider those who are already paying for such services, if they were to be asked to pay a second time through general taxation”.
Because of the current drinking water subsidy, the National Federation of Group Water Schemes, which represents 350 schemes across the State, has said it has “no issue” with paying for water through general taxation.
However, the federation’s national adviser, Sean Clerkin, said it is not directly involved in waste water treatment services.
Over the past 15 years, the State has invested about €1.4 billion in treatment facilities and infrastructure for group water services, which provide drinking water. As a result, the quality of water in group schemes is generally at least as good as public water supplies.
“The days that the farmer comes in from a day’s work and goes to the shed to fix the group water supply before having his dinner are long gone,” said Mr Clerkin.
Party penalisers
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny, who represents the rural constituency of Sligo, Leitrim, West Cavan and South Donegal, rejected charges that has party wants to penalise rural dwellers.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “Sinn Féin’s position is that equity should be applied in the supply of water and that no one should be paying for the consumption of domestic water, which is a human right.”
Mr Kenny added that members of group water schemes had strongly opposed any attempt to privatise water: “This is another attempt to create an urban-rural divide, but it will fail, like the attempt to introduce water charges has failed.”
Sinn Féin’s budget proposals would invest €200 million for water infrastructure, along with an extra €1.5 million subsidy for people served by private water group schemes.
