AS the political war of words over water charges intensified yesterday, the National Federation of Group Water Schemes gave a guarded welcome to comments by the Progressive Democrats leader, Ms Mary Harney.
The federation's chairman, Mr Bernard Keeley, said group schemes did not object in principle to paying for water, as long as everyone paid the same rate and there was no discrimination against rural areas.
"The electorate are educated enough to know that if they are not going to pay water charges then the money is going to come from somewhere else," he said.
"We have been working with the PDs over the last while in relation to the cost of all this. I cannot speak for Mary Harney, but I think she has realised the excessive costs that are involved in the provision of unlimited amounts of drinking water for everyone.
The abolition of water charges by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, was an ill thought out policy that had rebounded on the Government, Mr Keeley added.
In seeking to abolish charges, Mr Howlin was "flying in the face of European policy", which was to introduce individual meters for consumers of water. The narrow political debate about money had obscured other important issues raised by the federation. These included ownership, devolution, and the role of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The federation had called for a minimum investment of £50 million a year in the infrastructure of group water schemes and had been laughed out of court. But the schemes - originally introduced as a temporary measure by the former Taoiseach, Mr Sean Lemass - now faced collapse in many areas.
Years of neglect had led to the present situation, where massive investment in infrastructure was an urgent necessity. Ms Harney was "honest" in highlighting the huge cost of the measures introduced by Mr Howlin.