Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil supports this Bill, which gives effect to the recommendations of the Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water published in April 2017. This legislation abolishes water charges and introduces fines or levies on those who waste water. After many hours in the committee, the following recommendations appear in the Bill. Now that the spin is over the facts remain. The facts are clear - water charges are gone for 92% of the population.

People who paid will be repaid. This is extremely important as there had to be equality. Those who complied could not be treated any less favourably than those who did not pay. Under the legislation, refunds will issue within one month of the Bill passing. Some 30,000 cheques per day can be sent out. The bulk of the 970,000 or so refunds should be completed by the new year once this legislation has been passed. The refunds are being financed via underspend from other Departments and will not have an impact on the fiscal space for budget 2018.

With this Bill, 92% of households will not pay a charge while those who waste water will have until July 2019 to rectify excessive water use, apply for an exemption or utilise the first fix policy. The regulator will determine normal usage in that time and it was agreed by all parties that homes can use 1.7 times that level. This formula can only be changed by agreement of the Dáil and accusations from the hard left that water charges will be back are completely false and populist propaganda. There will also be extra usage allowed for those with families of five and more, and those with medical conditions. People will have time to moderate their usage. An information campaign will also commence as that was part of the joint committee's recommendations. Any households above this usage level will be given an opportunity to fix leaks and reduce usage before being subject to a levy. If they waste water, they will be penalised. The Oireachtas joint committee committed to providing funding certainty for water infrastructure to ensure Ireland meets its Water Framework Directive obligations.

A new water services policy statement will be published under the legislation. This will link into the Irish Water strategic funding plan. Irish Water will have an annual budget reflecting that plan and the annual bill for domestic water usage. Irish Water funding will come straight from the Department, which will pay for every household's water bill as well as capital funding to Irish Water. This has already been built into the calculations of the fiscal space for 2018 so it will not have a direct impact on the budget for 2018. The report by Kevin Duffy on the funding of domestic public water services in Ireland recommended that water should be paid for by the Exchequer. Motor taxation will now go directly into the Exchequer rather than into the local government fund. This is to compensate for the fact that the Department will now pay the water usage bill.

Rural water schemes and group schemes also have to be dealt with fairly and equitably. The subsidy increase to the schemes will be maintained. The working group on verifying the subsidy levels to rural dwellers and those on the public water supply will be established after this legislation. Fianna Fáil has already boosted funding to group water schemes under the confidence and supply agreement. We will press on with this working group as a matter of priority to ensure equity between urban and rural dwellers' water supply costs.

The new framework will draw a line under the water charges fiasco introduced by the Fine Gael and Labour parties. The Fianna Fáil Party believes it is time to draw a clear line under this fiasco and move on. That is why we drew up a detailed pathway to reform Irish Water and ultimately abolish water charges. This Bill is the climax of that work and compromise over the past 18 months.

See this speech in context