Stanley Calls For Govt To Be Honest About Water Charges

Sinn Féin TD, Brian Stanley, party Spokesperson on the Environment, is accusing Fine Gael and Labour of dancing to Fianna Fáil's and the Troika's tune on water charges.

Stanley said: "The Government needs to be honest about the level of water charges while Fianna Fáil are talking out of both sides of their mouths on the issue.

"Fianna Fáil again confirmed over the last few days that, on the one hand, they support the introduction of water charges yet, in opposition they hypocritically oppose government plans to introduce them.

"People need to remember that it was Fianna Fáil who originally agreed with the Troika to the introduction of these charges for 2014 and subsequently Fine Gael and Labour failed to renegotiate the terms.

"Phil Hogan now confirms that the charges will be levied from January next year.

"Astonishingly Fianna Fáil were first out of the traps yesterday to cynically criticise the government for trying to introduce Fianna Fáil policy.

"Fine Gael and Labour should be up front about the real cost of this new tax in the medium to long term. On average approximately €1.1 billion is spent annually on water services in the state, which equates to over €600 per household.

"On top of this Fine Gael and Labour intend taking €500 million from the National Pension Reserve Fund to fund the installation of water meters. This money will also need to be recouped through the water charges.

"Water metering won’t fund or fix the leaks in the mains infrastructure where 40% is currently leaking from the mains system.

"Of course the Government won't charge €600 initially but, like the home tax where they cynically introduced it firstly for a half year in 2013, they will try and dupe the people into believing that water charges won’t affect them greatly."

(CD)