Seanad debates

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

Water Services (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage

 

8:05 pm

Photo of David CullinaneDavid Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am raising these matters because they are connected to the charges and to the question of ability to pay. I insist that I be allowed to make my point this time, because that is only fair.

There is a real fear that what we saw with other charges will also happen in this case. Water charges will be brought in with a certain level of subvention for a period of time, but then the full cost will be levied on householders eventually. In reality, this is not a progressive charge. It is a tax but it is not a progressive one because there is no ability to pay clause linked to it. That is the fundamental reason for my opposition to this legislation. The same argument was had in the context of the household charge. The Government maintained that it would be fair and progressive, but it was based on the valuation of the property. Now we are being told the water charge will be based on how much water one uses. No consideration is being given to how many people are living in a household or to their income levels. There could be seven or eight people with low incomes in a single property paying exactly the same water charge as their neighbours with vastly higher incomes. That simply is not fair. We are moving away from fair, just and progressive taxation at central level towards a raft of individual, regressive charges like the household charge, bin charges and water charges. People are sick and tired of it. They are sick and tired of the unfairness of it and of the number of separate charges which are being imposed on them.

The Minister of State still has not given me a good reason for obliging people to pay both property tax and a water charge. He made the point himself earlier that in many countries people pay for water but they pay for it through a household rate that covers many different services.

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