A troop-rallying video for this Saturday’s Right 2 Water protest in Dublin city centre comprising images of recent local protests around the country (including Dundalk above)
Mmf.
Soundtrack: Enda Kenny Forrest Gump by Alan Silvestri.
Buses For The National Demonstration (Right2Water)
Meanwhile…
Water stress by Country: 2040.
Thanks Nelly Bergman
Hmm.
Cathal O’Rourke writes:
Forwarded to me by a friend [dropped In to his door in Ballinter, Dublin 16 this morning]. Your guess is as good as mine…
Anyone?
This morning.
Irish Water protesters on St Patrick’s Bridge in Cork city this morning.
Poor grammar or Cork colloquialism?
We may never know.
Pics via Paul Byrne
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)
This afternoon.
Mick R writes:
Spotted in Vartry Resevoir in Roundwood [Co Wicklow]. English water company over to conduct specialist works. Why again do we have Irish Water?
Anyone?
RTE reports:
RTÉ News has learned that from next year a new database will be used for the administration of the water conservation grant.
In a letter, obtained by RTÉ under the Freedom of Information Act, the Department of the Environment details how the Local Government Management Agency could bring together data on customers and non-customers of Irish Water into a single new database to be used by the Department of Social Protection.
This will involve the setting up of a new website to collect and register the details of non-Irish Water Customers.
There you go now.
Households to receive letters about water grant (RTÉ)
Previously: About That Irish Water ‘Database’
‘sup?
John C writes:
The above arrived in my door folded up together. They still haven’t gone away you know. I rather wish they would…
Fight!
Today’s Irish Water editorials.
A little late to the party but still.
Grab yourselves hi-viz vest, meet Derek, etc.
From top: Irish Daily Mail; Irish Independent and The Irish Times
Earlier: “This Has No Impact Whatsoever”
From RTÉ One’s Six One last night
Environment Minister Alan Kelly, who is on holiday, spoke to Sharon Ní Bheoláin on RTE’s Six One last night via telephone, following the Eurostat/Irish Water/Exchequer balance sheet brouhaha.
In summary, Eurostat decided, ‘Irish Water is a non-market entity controlled by government and should be classified inside the government sector’ for five main reasons:
1. There has been ‘considerable government control’ over the body, and especially in regards to board appointments and ‘pricing parameters’.
2. Irish Water ‘merely re-organises previously non-market activity carried out by local government, with local government assets being transferred to Irish Water and a large majority of Irish Water staff remaining local government employees’.
3. There has been ‘significant and continuous government funding and support to Irish Water’.
4. A ‘lack of economically significant prices, concerning in particular the capping of fees for households’.
5. The so-called ‘50% test’ – where sales cover at least 50 per cent of the production costs over a sustained multi-year period – has not been met.
Further to this, Mr Kelly said Eurostat’s decision would make no impact at all.
Sharon Ní Bheoláin: “It’s evident that the Government has been putting a brave face on this all day long. They’re saying ‘nothing to be seen here’ but, to the man and woman watching at home, this is really the latest chapter in the omnishambles that has been Irish Water.”
Alan Kelly: “I wouldn’t agree with that at all Sharon. Straight up, this has no immediate impact because in the Spring Economic Statement, we provided for it to be on balance sheet. It doesn’t change anything, it doesn’t change our plans for investment, it doesn’t change the structure of Irish Water and, for that man and woman you speak about, it doesn’t change the charges system that’s in place.”
Ní Bheoláin: “No change from a budgetary point of view, minister. But a sea change from the Government’s position. It wasn’t so long ago that we heard the Tánaiste say that she was confident that the Government would pass this Eurostat test, only today, [Finance Minister] Michael Noonan saying, it was embarrassing. Now do you agree with Michael Noonan?”
Kelly: “I don’t agree with that statement. I haven’t even heard him say it to be honest, but I don’t agree with that statement. The simple fact of the matter is that there’s a number of issues which have been raised by Eurostat. The CSO will actually, I believe, be challenging some of the comments and some of the statements by Eurostat and, by the earliest opportunity, we will be looking to see this reviewed and I believe that, into the future, in 12 months time or so, this should be reviewed and looked at again and I believe it will be cause essentially I believe, in the future, it will be off balance sheet but in the short term…”
Ní Bheoláin: “Can I just…because the Eurostat…minister…”
Kelly: “This has no impact whatsoever.”
Ní Bheoláin: “The Eurostat statement is here and it’s quite stark. It talks about the lack of economically significant prices. It refers to the capping of fees, it’s quite clear that they are of the view that you priced water too cheaply.”
Kelly: “I’ve read their statement and I’ve read their statement in detail, I disagree fundamentally of course with some of the analysis and it’ll be up to us and working through the CSO to challenge that, into the future. They have said that, from a forward-looking point of view, they would look at this again and we’re going to ensure that that happens because, into the future, I believe they should be off-balance sheet but let me just repeat here: this doesn’t change anything. In the Spring Economic Statement, we provided for this. We were prudent as a Government and we provided for this in all our figures, in all our budgetary analysis, all the way out, that this would be on balance sheet…”
Ní Bheoláin: “I want to ask you minister, just before, because time is against us, what will you be bringing to the table when you do go back to Eurostat and ask them to reevaluate their position.”
Kelly: “Well essentially, I think there were a number of points which the Central Statistics Office which is an independent body, they have issues with a number of the comments that have been made by Eurostat and the analysis. Essentially, some of their comments in relation to structure, in relation to the funding model, and also in relation to the role of local authorities, I think they’re all issues that need to be re-looked at. But, ultimately, once Irish Water is bedded down in this country – and I don’t think there is another alternative – in fact I know there isn’t another alternative. Once this is bedded down, I believe this will be off balance sheet. But In the short-term, this decision doesn’t have any impact from a budgetary point of view whatsoever.”
Right so.
Watch/listen back here
Read the Eurostat’s decision here
Previously: Contains Impurities
Irish Water protesters outside the GPO in Dublin on June 20
John Downing, of the Irish Independent, spoke to Keelin Shanley as she sat in for Seán O’Rourke on RTE Radio One this morning.
The interview followed this morning’s reports that Eurostat is expected to rule that the State funds spent on Irish Water will have to remain on the Exchequer balance sheet until at least 2017.
Ms Shanley said, despite attempts by RTE to have somebody from Government speak on the show, nobody was available.
During the interview, they discussed the strength of the anti-water charges movement…
Keelin Shanley: “You would have to say politically: this is messy for them [Government], they’ve already had an awful lot of controversy around water charges. The movement did seem to be dying down, the anti-water charges movement, a little. How big a political fiasco is this for them?”
John Downing: “I believe it has that the anti-water charge movement was losing impetus and I think the Government were confident that it would be less of an election issue. This brings it right back. However, the timing of this news coming out is interesting: people going, already on holidays, people coming back from holidays, I think the Government will be hoping that it won’t be as noticeable as it might if it had emerged in September or October but it is very difficult for them and, at all events, we are now heading right into the teeth of an election campaign.”
Shanley: “I suppose the problem with this decision is that it seems to imply incompetence, that the Government thought the decision would go in another direction, you know, rather than implying that you might disagree with the ideology, the basic idea of paying for water, it says something about the way in which they’re working.”
Downing: “I believe so and I believe there was a point where, of all things, all the products, all the nasty products of austerity, water charges, for the bulk of middle Ireland was seen as reasonable and if we could see improved service and so on that people could have lived with it. I think, when you go back again to the point about the growth errors made by Irish Water, they have completely very, very seriously damaged that whole principle and, on that basis, at the end, as you say, it does, voters are entitled to say that this reflects on the competence of Government.”
Listen back here
Previously: Balance Sheet Hits The Fan
Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie
