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Updated 7pm
FIANNA FÁIL’S MICHAEL McGrath launched a swift response this evening to criticism of his party by Leo Varadkar.
The acting health minister said earlier that Fianna Fáil’s focus on water during government formation talks was “surreal” and ”ridiculous”.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Keelin Shanley, the Fine Gael TD insisted scrapping charges was the wrong decision and not in the national interest.
Micheál Martin’s party could have concentrated on issues like the health service or the USC, he said.
Not at all – all down to water charges that cost €3 a week – it is the wrong thing to do, it is not in the national interest.
He said it would have been “insane” to go back to the people and fight an election on water charges.
‘Deeply unhelpful’
Later, McGrath said Varadkar’s comments were “deeply unhelpful, unnecessary and self-serving”.
He told the media at Leinster House that he could not understand Varadkar’s timing, and observed that the minister appeared to be positioning himself for a leadership battle within Fine Gael.
McGrath said making such comments when the two parties are so close to an overall agreement made him question Varadkar’s motivation.
The timing beggars belief… those claims can only inflame the situation, I simply can’t understand it.
He said it would make one wonder: “What’s going on within the Fine Gael party?”
We all know there is a succession issue ongoing in Fine Gael.
McGrath said the comments are not going to stall the negotiations.
We are not going to throw the toys out of the pram over this.
Varadkar’s broadside didn’t go down well with some other members of Fianna Fáil today either.
Speaking later on RTÉ’s Six One news Varadkar accused McGrath of making a personal attack on him. Asked whether he would serve in a Fine Gael-led government, should one be formed, he said he would – after responding first that it was presumptuous to assume there would be a government.
Talks
Both McGrath and Varadkar could agree on one thing – they both hope a minority government will be in place by the end of next week.
McGrath said papers were being exchanged today between the two parties.
One of the main issues still to be decided once and for all is, of course, the suspension of water charges. A draft agreement between the old civil war rivals was agreed on Tuesday.
Unpaid bills
There has been some division among the parties over whether people who paid their bills should be entitled to a refund if the charges are scrapped.
Any water charge bills were issued on a valid legal basis, McGrath said today, raising the question as to whether it was legally possible to rescind the bills.
Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton said yesterday that paying customers would have to get their money back in the event that the levies are voted down by the Dáil. Fianna Fáil’s position is that the over 900,000 people who have paid their bills should not be refunded.
The proposed Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil agreement is thought to involve a suspension of water charges for between nine to 18 months while a commission of experts examines alternative charging systems.
Once the water commission’s report is drafted and sent to an Oireachtas committee, the findings will be debated and voted on by all TDs. Irish Water as an entity is not expected to be referred to the commission.
Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly yesterday slammed the mooted deal during a Dáil discussion on the public utility. The Labour TD said the scrapping of Irish Water would be “political, economic and environmental sabotage”.
He questioned whether the move would be within EU law and warned Dublin would face water shortages if the charges are abolished.
Scrapping water charges
Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan said this morning he continued to support the principle of paying for water, but acknowledged that if it was put to a vote today, water charges would be scrapped.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Flanagan denied that the party had sacrificed its principles to stay in power, stating that he hoped the talks would conclude in the next 48 hours.
Fianna Fáil’s John Curran told the same programme the focus on Irish Water by his party was justified. The administration of the utility is too expensive, he said.
So what happens next?
When a deal is signed off on by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, government formation talks will then revert back to the independents. Fine Gael are still short of seats and need at least six to form a minority government.
So far, Enda Kenny has the support of two independents – Katherine Zappone and Micheal Lowry.
Substantial talks have already taken place with the independents prior to Fine Gael entering talks with FF, so it is expected that discussions will not take long once they resume.
There are a number of independents in the mix – each one with a particular wish list of what they want
Independent TD Michael Collins said non-party deputies would be taking time to look at what is on the table, and that he expected the process to take two to three days.
Independent Alliance TD Michael Fitzmaurice told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that he was not going to be “bullied into something… sign up to this and away we go”.
I wouldn’t count the chickens before they’re hatched.
Additional reporting by Catherine Healy
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I went into AIB one day to ask them for a print out of my statements for the previous 6 months for the Welfare as I was out of work at the time and I didn’t have a printer. I was told that the charge was €3 per page! I can get 500 sheets of paper off Viking Direct for €3.43. She told me that the total amount of pages was 12 so that would have been €36 for 5 minutes work. I declined her offer and got a friend of mine to print them instead for the price of a cup of coffee.
@Ennui Kenny: social welfare office should accept e statements. Saves time, money and the environment
@Ennui Kenny: well that’s exactly the point. They make it so prohibitively expensive that you go elsewhere and learn how to do it yourself. To be honest it makes sense if it’s only a statement your after.
However, the hours they operate are total bollocks. Those are worth complaining about. Bank of Ireland operate at hours (10:30am to 4pm) safely tucked inside everyone else’s working so they have to deal with as few customers face to face as possible and subsequently have to pay tellers as little as possible also. I might add that actual cash services within those few hours are further restricted again to an even more few hours. And they don’t do all this because they can’t find staff to work the hours. They do it because they’re stingy
@Irish Political GIF: Social welfare won’t accept e statements or even in some cases their own online printed forms.
@Eon Cocker: yes but it goes against the bullshit slogan that “we’re here to help our customers” they omitted the text “for a price” from their slogans.
@Eon Cocker: BOI open from 10am actually.. try getting out of bed half an hour earlier.
@Eon Cocker: BofI are shocking, tried to get a statement off them and three times they sent the wrong ones out, shocking that they could not even do a basic thing like print a statement correctly, I’ll never do business with them again.
I went in to my local bank to ask about a business “Start up Loan” they told me I have to be in business about six months and already have a business account. Which is not a start up Loan.
There’s no competition in the market so there’s no motivation to reform.
Doesn’t help that Rabo Bank left the market.
“Revolut” might put some pressure on some of them with regards card fees with their free model.
@Tom: Ask the central bank why they restrict competition and don’t allow Raisin.com to operate in Ireland. Raisin offer the best deposit rates but the Central bank refuse them a licence even though they are licensed by every other central bank in Europe.
@Tom: The online banks; N26, Revolut, Monzo, Fire (the only Irish online-only bank I know of) etc. are all so much better than any Irish bank, despite the fact they all are start-ups with a fraction of the staff and capital. Decent support too with hours outside of 10am – 4pm.
Only time there is a problem with those is when something comes up that you would typically go to a branch for. Lodging money comes to mind (via branch or ATM).
@Shane Corry: I hadn’t heard of those others. Will give them each a go.
I think it is a bit rich of the central bank to say there is not a customer focus. The Central Bank have refused a licence for Raisin.com to operate in Ireland. Raisin.com is a company that allows people to use banks in other countries throughout Europe for deposts. Hence achieving better rates for customers. Ireland is the only country in the EU that Raisin cannot operate.
What I can never understand is why a hell of a lot more bankers are not in prison. They deliberately stole many peoples money by putting them on the wrong interest rates in the tracker mortgage scandal. This is obvious theft. Why are they allowed get away with this ? The establishment looks after its own
@Michael farrelly: Because you live in a highly corrupt country and its that was because we vote for it every election.
Bank of Ireland have no soul
@Irish Political GIF: In short the Central Bank examined all the major banks to see if they’d changed their greedy, self-centered “to hell with the customer” ways, they’d clearly put considerable time and effort into this.
Their conclusion is to tell us what we already know, that, no, they haven’t changed one iota. And their answer to this is to send the report to the various Banks, as a sort of gentle reminder, and recommend legislation to ” facilitate an individual accountability framework”.
Seriously, ffs, what’s the point? If it’s not bad enough telling that the Central Bank has the bare faced cheek to stand in front of the people of this country at this stage and admit that all the major Banks couldn’t give a rat’s anus about any of their collective customers is that not a slight indication of a problem? Is it not a bigger indication of a problem that, having identified all the Banks giving their so-called regulator a collective finger, their is absolutely nothing that can be done about it except a stern letter. Meanwhile this country and it’s people get collectively screwed – again, by the banks, while yet another government stands by and pretends to be outraged.
Simple bank’s are a law onto themselves, the mortgage scandal proved it big time. The CB says it has teeth but it’s bark is worse than its bite. Don’t let the top banker’s draw the recommendations out just make it law ,sign up or leave your job end off.
If you were to believe all the claptrap that come from the marketing departments of these major companies about mission statements and company ethos etc you’d think they were some kind of benevolent overseers only out to serve the interests of their deer customers. The truth is they are all money grabbing slime bags, whose only priorities are to extract maximum profit with minimum outlay. The Irish banks should hang their collective heads in shame at their behaviour over the past 20 years. As for companies like Apple, for all their talk of loving their users, they are getting more closed and cult-like every day, not afraid to stomp all over statutory rights to protect their profits. Company statements are nonsense and should be completely ignored.
@Emachine: “dear” customers
Banks are a law onto themselves, and screw their customers, they simply see them as cows to milk.
My local Branch constantly harass customers to use machines for transactions, and actually process most transactions for the older customers. Who walk out none the wiser. Counter access now down to 9-12, complete joke.
As for tracker issue, amongst many others…..
Intentionally defrauding customers!
Regulators are incompetent and useless !
@Isthatright: sure my local branch doesn’t accept cash… yeup you read that right. If you can’t do it by machine then youve to go to another branch altogether.
@Karen NíDhochartaigh: Close your account and tell them you are moving to another bank because of it, otherwise no point in complaining.
My Local Ulster bank has implemented a forced use of envelopes paying cheques in. No counter service. Made a complaint to ulsterbank and got 25 euro and an apology but the change in attitude of the counter staff since it was brought in is noticeable.
I suppose they only have to be slightly less obnoxious than bank of Ireland to know I won’t move there and account charges are way higher in aib.
Listening to the radio on my way home from work..the report was being discussed..was amazed to discover that a Belgian customer can shop for a mortgage in most of Europe..with20yr fixed rates of 2% readily available..imagine if were all really equal…
GOUGE the customer fist,board room.
Customer first advertised.
What does anyone expect? Banks defraud their tracker customers at will and there are no consequences. Fine Gael disinterested in white collar crime and the devastating consequences on people’s lives. Fact.
Open a smsrt account at the post office…personal service and open 6 days a week
Bank of Ireland have been torturing us for 8 years
OK here are my terms and conditions:
Any bank that causes a communication signal with nauseating adspeak content to be broadcast into my home shall be liable to a fine of €50,000 for each and every offence.
Peer to Peer lending for mortgages and other small to medium loans please, let’s cut out these banks having so much clout over us.
Government should be legislating for innovation, and not protecting their friends.
Any excuse my diatribe, probably talking rubbish as usual.
@Hellenize Dublin: *Anyway
Banks that have softly spoken american sounding patter, backing brave or some such nonsense. Put more tellers on instead
If you want to change something start with the top! For the banks – the top is the major shareholders. Group together and threaten the major shareholders with a boycott or blockades and they won’t be long pushing for action.
You only have watch that very wrong BOI advert with the boy and his teddy bear to realise that the banks want you to keep moving house and for no other reason other than to keep them in profit!! They don’t care that that boy needs roots to grow, form friends and have stability!!!!!
If possible, nobody wants to move, school going kids from house to house or to completely different neighborhoods, which that advert is suggesting is the normal path of life.
have your say