Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am sure that the irony that we are once again discussing domestic water charges has not escaped us. This issue has a long history and it is worthwhile to remind ourselves of it. The former Deputy, Dick Spring, introduced water charges in 1983. The then Minister for the Environment in the rainbow coalition Government, Deputy Brendan Howlin, abolished those charges in 1996. At the time, Deputy Howlin pointed to a KPMG report he had commissioned which stated that the installation of water meters would be unproductive, inefficient and simply not worthwhile given that the revenue to be generated would be unlikely to cover the costs of metering. Indeed, in 1996, Deputy Howlin introduced a new regime which would see local authorities retaining all proceeds from the motor tax fund, which would go into the local government fund and would allow the local authorities to manage and maintain water infrastructure and other services.

When people took to the streets and said "No" on this occasion, there was a myriad of reasons. One was that they felt they had paid for this service already through the fund that was designated for local authorities. However, there was more. From the outset, it was clear to anyone who cared to listen that the resistance to water charges was not simply about paying for water. It was really the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back for people who had already endured the property tax, pension levy, universal social charge and wage cuts. They had absorbed the banking debt and had seen bondholders paid. They were seeing the companies that got the metering contracts gain at their expense. Essentially, that is where the Siteserv controversy intersected. People were rightly concerned about the awarding of those metering contracts. They became aware that the Local Government Fund had been wiped out, with a considerable amount of it going to Irish Water and the rest going into the Government coffers. They were being taken for fools in all this. This has always been about more than water. The Government and Fianna Fáil need to understand that it was always about more than water.

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