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IT IS NOT the Government’s intention to cut off people who cannot pay their water charge bill, NewERA Minister Fergus O’Dowd said today.
The Junior Minister made the comment while attending a Seanad hearing on the Water Services Bill, under which water charges are to be brought in. Seanad members put questions on the bill to Minister O’Dowd at the hearing.
Senator David Norris raised concerns about responsibility for fitting water meters, and said that the Government should try to get a bargain price for them. He also questioned if there is a failure of the meters, who is responsible.
He asked if there will be a proposal to cut people off if they can’t pay, and was told by Minister O’Dowd: “It’s not the intention to cut anybody off.”
Fianna Fáil Senator Diarmuid Wilson said that his party was “deeply concerned” about the Bill, considering the “cabinet confusion” about how much people would pay. He said there was a “flawed public consultation” and that “none of this bodes well” for the implementation of the charges.
He also questioned the Minister on whether there will be job losses as result of the setting up of Bord Uisce. Sen Wilson said that bringing the bill before the house now “is putting the cart before the horse”.
Uisce Éireann
Fine Gael Senator Cait Keane welcomed the news and the establishment of Uisce Eireann. She said that people don’t want to know that 34 local authorities are looking after the water charges, but “what they want is satisfaction, a good supply of water coming out of the tap”.
She added that there is “no fairness” if water charges are different.
Senator David Cullinane questioned whether it was fair that a big family on a small income could be paying the same as a small family on a big income. He said that water charges should be funded through general taxation.
Labour Senator John Kelly asked when there was going to be an indication of how much money users will have to pay for these charges, while Fianna Fáil Senator Darragh O’Brien said he has grave concerns about how this will impact people working in local authorities.
He also asked about the cost of meters, saying that at first people were told there would be no charge, but due to a loan from the National Pension Reserve Fund of €450 million, “that would be effectively [be] €340 on average cost to the consumer”.
He added he didn’t want “a big foreign conglomerate installing meters”. Fine Gael Senator Michael Comiskey said that it is important that local people and local subcontractors install the meters, and asked for a universal charge for farmers and universal charge for water across the country.
Minister O’Dowd will return later in the week to answer the questions from the Senators.
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If I hear anyone else say “life style choice” in relation to social welfare, I swear to God I wont be responsible!!!
The other thing that I m tired of hearing is “we need to reduce social welfare to motivate people to go back to work” Our TDs receive over €2500 pay per week, plus expenses, free transport etc and they are spending their time on how to cut child welfare by €10 and the dole by €8. Those who profit most from Irelands wealth are mostly tax exiles and pay nothing at all …is something wrong here?? Should we not be “motivating” those who earn €1 million plus to be paying their fair share?
I “live” on Social Welfare. Yes you could say it is a “lifestyle choice”. I have cardiac artery disease, diabetes and arthritis, and am on Disability Allowance. I get the same amount to exist on as someone trying to find a job. It is not a lot. In fact it is not enough. Do our T.D.s know or care? I think not. Would they do anything if they did know?
NO! Because they are not concerned about how ordinary people get by.
Oh Sugar !!
this country has thee most disconected politicians in relation to real life and how we cope and live with the decisions they make.
living on social welfare is a great lifestyle choice, i do it all the time :-P
It is an absolute disgrace what happened to Fr Kevin Reynolds and I am happy for him that his name was cleared. Why the hell won’t Dev jnr respect this mans wishes and those of Fr. Reynolds legal team?
Before cutting social welfare for single mothers, can we please first have a National plan to provide community childcare to every family? Community Childcare workers do a great job but when they have to be closed during school holidays, what’s the point?
Believe it or not, not every child in this country has a granny who can take over during school holidays.
Am I the only person who thinks the defamation by autocomplete thing is stupid? It would be like punishing a news reporter for reporting the news. It happened and people were looking up the recievership online to find out information about it so google took a popular term being used and suggested it as a search item. Google simpley did what it’s supposed to do, help people find information online in a quick manner by streamlining what is relevent to what people wanted at that time.
If the term “receivership” is now considered pejorative then google in Ireland had better beware, as the number of businesses in that situation is more likely to grow than shrink.
have your say