Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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One of the reasons Article 9.4 of the water framework directive is so contentious is it has become a central part of the public debate on whether discontinuing domestic water charges is a viable policy option. There have been newspaper articles arguing that if we abolish domestic water charges, we will face immediate and very substantial fines from the European Court of Justice and the European Commission. Therefore, we understand all of this is important for ourselves and the public. I have three sets of questions for the Commission and Mr. Bradley and Mr. Kelly because I am interested in their respective views.

What is really crucial is that Article 9.4, as outlined, sets out two criteria. The first is the idea of established practice, while the second is the achievement of the objectives of the directive as outlined in Article 1. I am a little confused as to the Commission's position because between 2010 and 2014, in both public and on the record comments, it seemed to have changed its position. I will outline what I mean by that and then seek a response.

In 2010 when he was a Labour Party Member of the European Parliament Deputy Alan Kelly asked a parliamentary question of the then Commissioner and was told very clearly "where this is an established practice at the time of the adoption of the directive". The interpretation of the part of the answer by many people is that established practice, as per the water framework directive, means whatever the established practice of the member state was at the time the directive was passed in 2000. There is nothing in that answer that relates to whether a member state chose to invoke the derogation in its 2009 river basin management plan. That is reinforced by a subsequent communication to Ms Lynn Boylan, MEP, from the Directorate-General for the Environment in 2014. She asked whether it was possible to reinvoke Article 9.4, despite the fact that it had not been used in 2009. The answer was as follows: "On the basis of-----