Today’s Irish Times cover story
This morning, political correspondent at the Irish Times Fiach Kelly reported that the €100 water grant will only be given to those who have paid their Irish Water bills – a move he suggested would be implemented from next year.
The grant is currently available to everyone who has registered with Irish Water even to those who have registered but who haven’t paid their bills.
Mr Kelly also reported that Labour’s Environment Minister Alan Kelly plans to introduce proposals to cut the cost of running Irish Water when the Dáil resumes after the summer break.
However, the Department of the Environment told Newstalk Breakfast there are no plans to change the water conservation grant with Irish Water and that Minster Alan Kelly has no plans to bring proposals concerning Irish Water before the Cabinet next month.
Also on Newstalk Breakfast, Fine Gael’s Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe told host Chris Donoghue appeared to confirm no changes to the conservation grant.
Then.
Niall O’Connor, of the Irish Independent, reported on Independent.ie that:
“The Labour Party was caught off guard by the developments last night, even though the [water conservation] grant is administered by Joan Burton’s department. Labour sources have this morning claimed that Finance Minister Michael Noonan “overruled” Environment Minister Alan Kelly in his previous efforts to link the grant to payment.”
Mr O’Connor spoke to Keelin Shanley, who is standing in for Seán O’Rourke, on RTÉ Radio One, in relation to the story.
Audrey Carville: “You’re saying that there are plans to pay the €100 to people who have paid their bills as opposed to everyone who has simply registered with Irish Water?”
Fiach Kelly: “Yes, the current situation is that everybody who registered with Irish Water by June 30 this year will be entitled to this €100 grant and from the Department of Social Protection. That will begin to be distributed to people from next month on. So around 70 per cent of people who are eligible to register with Irish Water have done so, which means 70 per cent of people are entitled to get that €100. The problem is that you can get that €100, even if you haven’t paid your water charges bill. We’ve seen, with the compliance figures which show that around 43 per cent of homes have paid their water charges – there’s a discrepancy between the people who have registered and the people who have actually paid. So what the Government is looking at now is narrowing that gap, I suppose, and making sure that in order to get your €100 you have to prove you paid your bill. Now it’s too early for them to make the change this year, in respect of 2015, there’s no timeframe on it yet but it looks like it will be done in the future, possibly as early as next year. It’s one of a number of changes that is being looked at after the Eurostat decision to say that Irish Water can’t be classified as off Government balance sheet.
Another change is that the existing water charges cap – so it’s €206 for a family, €106 for a single adult household. They drop by €100 when you get your grant. They might apply for as much as a decade now. It was initially envisaged that they would apply until the end of 2018 with a water charges cap, another cap to be decided from 2019 but those existing caps could exist for a decade. Basically what’s happened with the Eurostat decision, it’s telling the Government that they think that it’s not eligible to be off Government balance sheet, it’s actually freed the Government up now to decide that this may be considered as a longer-term project, something that could be stretched out over a decade. And it also must be seen, I suppose, in the context of the general election where Fine Gael and Labour are trying to settle a position on this thorny issue before they go to the people in the coming months.”
Carville: “In relation to the €100 payment to the people who have paid their bills, why are they reconsidering that? Are they getting a lot of stick from Fine Gael backbench TDs?”
Kelly: “They’re getting a lot of stick across the political spectrum from Fine Gael TDs and other TDs as well. The reason is because they are now facing a scenario where a minority of people have paid their bills, so the people who are in compliance with Irish Water and the water charges are in the minority, 43%. So they risk alienating that core of people who are going along with this plan. So, in order, I suppose, to bring up that compliance rate and make sure the people who have paid are happy to kind of tighten the net on these people who are entitled to their €100 but might not have paid their bills..”
Carville: “But would Labour agree to this?”
Kelly: “My understanding is that this is being discussed by both parties at the top of Government and there is broad agreement on the outline on how this will proceed but the details have yet to be hammered out. I understand that Alan Kelly will bring additional measures, including proposals about reducing the cost of running Irish Water, to Cabinet, after the summer break…”
On Newstalk….
FG Minister Paschal Donohoe: “There’s nothing at all being written. The Department of Social Protection has made it very clear that the structures that we have in place now will stay in place. I think it is reasonable to say, given all the focus we have had in setting up a utility like Irish Water, to look at what measures can we take, what further work can be done, to improve its efficiency and ensure it’s better able to meet the needs of providing safe and secure water for Ireland.”
Chris Donoghue: “Minister that is absolute spin. These aren’t efficiencies, these aren’t measures, these are U-turns.”
Donohoe: “But what you’re talking about there Chris is…”
Donoghue: “What happened to metering? What happened to pay-per-use?”
Donohoe: “Chris. What you’re talking about here is speculation in relation to decisions and proposals that have not even been brought to Cabinet. It is absolutely necessary that, as a Government, we keep all measures in relation to Irish Water under review and, as I have said, the structures that are in place there now in relation to charging, and in relation to the conservation fee are in place and will be in place across this year.”
Donoghue: “Are you embarrassed by yourself – six weeks ago, describing Irish Water as a solid start?”
Donohoe: “Well what I was doing there was referring to the compliance rate, the number of people who registered…”
Donoghue: “43 per cent you said was solid.”
Donohoe: “And I also acknowledge that that is a figure that has to grow and will grow in the future. We want to see the compliance rates in Irish Water as high as they can be, to ensure that the funding in place is in place to meet the needs that our water system has. And that figure does have to grow and Irish Water will be working and finding ways to increase that in the years to come.”
Donoghue: “So are you embarrassed by yourself, describing it as a solid start?”
Donohoe: “I’m not. I’ve always acknowledged and I will do so again, that we did make, and mistakes were made in how we set up a utility of the scale of Irish Water and it’s incumbent on us to fix those. That’s what we have done in the past in terms of bringing certainty to customers about what the charging structure for Irish Water will be and we have to continue with that work because of the need that there is in place for a company like Irish Water to be able to operate efficiently…”
On Today With Seán O’Rourke:
Irish Independent’s Niall O’Connor: “I think Labour are not best pleased this morning that you have another situation, another potential good news story that they feel Fine Gael are trying to claim as their own. You know, they’ve certainly felt that in the past, politically, that any potential good story, Fine Gael are trying to steal their thunder…”
Listen back to Morning Ireland here
Listen back to Newstalk Breakfast here
Listen back to Today With Seán O’Rourke here
Irish Water: Coalition to link €100 grant with bill payment (Fiach Kelly, Irish Times)
No plans to change water conservation grant, says Department of Environment (Newstalk)
The enquiries should just be set up before the government decides spending anything costing more then €12:99. It would save a few decades.
I found that very confusing
whats this? confusion in govt ranks? dissent among the parties? TD’s spinning in spinning in opposite directions?
‘Forwards, not backwards! Upwards, not forwards! And always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!’
my contempt for this crowd of jokers is nearing Fianna Fáil levels.
But I appreciated the Simpsons reference and visions of Enda and Joan twirling around like Kang and Kodos gave my afternoon a lovely lift.
You couldn’t make this sh*t up.
i hate being called a customer of irish water. being forceably shaken down for cash and then being called a customer.
you’re not even a customer, that implies you are valued in some way. you are a consumer, that is all.
It sounds like Fiach is flying a kite,
That being said, surely it is a no-brainer, you only get that grant if you pay your bill?
Unfortunately him making it up and the government being all over the shop over Irish Water are equally as realistic.