by Alan Jacques
SERIOUS questions have been raised over the financial viability of Irish Water.
LIMERICK Sinn Féin councillor Maurice Quinlivan raised the issue in response to Environment Minister Alan Kelly’s reply to a Dáil question on the projected income from water charges this year.
“The Minister claims that domestic charges will bring in €271 million this year, with a further €229 million in commercial charges. The conservation grant will cost the exchequer €130 million, and the cost of collecting the charges will be €20 million,” the City North representative told the Limerick Post.
“If those figures are correct and if we assume that at the very least 30 per cent of people will not pay the charges, then the net figure from domestic charges will only be €40 million or less in 2015. At that rate, it would take 19 years to recoup the costs of the installation of meters alone, apart from all the other costs accrued by Irish Water. This is mad stuff and clearly nonsense,” he said.
The Sinn Féin politician believes there is now a real possibility that the EU will not accept the Government’s proposals. He feels that the indications from the leaked Commission report would strongly indicate that they consider the so-called water conservation grants, introduced in reaction to massive public opposition to the charges, to be unacceptable forms of State aid.
“Senior officials in the Commission have been quoted in recent days as saying that the conservation grants are a direct “exchequer transfer” to Irish Water. If that is the case it will not meet the market capitalisation test. Adding on the now proposed extra costs to the Department of Social Protection in administering the €100 conservation, though additional staff and administration costs of the grant, it is clear that the proposed water charges have now clearly become a fiasco.
“All of this underlines the fact that Irish Water is not viable in the manner which it was claimed it would be when it was set up, and when the charges were introduced as part of the 2013 Water Services Bill. The Government must now abandon it’s proposed water charges and come up with an acceptable and financially viable alternative to this monstrosity,” he concluded.
