Joan Burton and Leo Varadkar
Joe Higgins TD: “There is communication, and people understand that a family of four, including an 18 and a 19 year old and two adults, will pay just under €500. Similarly, a family of five will pay under €600, and when metering comes in that will rise inexorably.”
Joan Burton: “My answer to the suggestions and scaremongering the Deputy has just now undertaken in relation to the level of charges…”
Higgins: “What scaremongering?”
Burton: “…is that I am happy to say it is my view that the charge for the type of household the Deputy described will be below €200.”
Tánaiste Joan Burton in the Dáil yesterday
Meanwhile on RTÉ News At One earlier
Richard Crowley: “Joan Burton seems to think that €200, or less than €200, would be a fair figure, a modest figure, for a family of four, including two young adults – would you agree?”
Leo Varadkar: “Well I think the key thing is that we move to a very simple principle, is that you pay for what you use. Just as is the case…”
Crowley: “How much do you pay for what you use. That’s the issue and what would the average bill be, that’s the question?”
Varadkar: “Well we know what the average bill will be, it’ll be around €250 for the average household.”
Crowley: “And what’s the average household? Is that two young adults and two, a family of four, including two young adults?”
Varadkar: “No, that wouldn’t be an average household, by any means, but that’s the kind of thing we’re trying to put together now so that it is very clear for people, for all different types of households, even those multi-adult houses which actually are a minority but they deserve clarity too.”
Dáil transcript via Oireachtas.ie
