WATER CHARGES and a property tax are now almost certain to be introduced initially on a flat rate basis, a move Opposition parties claim will mean great inequity.
Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan said this week he intends to introduce a household utility charge in 2012 for all 1.8 million homes in the State.
The department confirmed yesterday the charge will be a fixed charge for each household next year and that the proceeds would be used to help fund the installation of water meters in all households in the State.
The briefing paper for Minister for Finance Michael Noonan had disclosed the EU-IMF programme had committed to a site value tax with a €100 “interim fixed household charge” being introduced in 2012, followed by a “full value-based addition” in 2013.
In the revised draft of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) released last week, a property tax remained as one of the specific tax measures that would be needed in this year’s budget to raise an extra €1.5 billion next year. The MoU stipulates the full site value tax, when introduced in 2013, will raise the charge on each household.
With 1.8 million households, the fixed property tax could raise up to €180 million in a full year, with a similar figure being raised by the water charge. Yesterday, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and the United Left Alliance (ULA) asserted the utility charge was a water tax by another name, and said the Government was agreeing to what were inequitable and unfair flat charges.
Fianna Fáil environment spokesman Niall Collins said the Government would bring in a number of stealth taxes while maintaining there would be no significant change. “The public will soon realise what they voted in when the see water charges going through the door, despite Labour campaigning against it.”
Sinn Féin TD for Meath West Peadar Tóibín said flat taxes were unacceptable. “The more people earn, the more wealth they possess, they more they should pay.”
ULA and Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins raised the issue of water charges with Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore on Thursday. He said the “so-called utility charge is an excuse for a flat water charge”.
The department spokeswoman said no decision had been taken other than the Minister saying a charge would have to come in.
The Labour Party’s spokeswoman in Government said no proposals on either the water charge or property tax had come before Cabinet as yet.
