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Water Charges

  • 04-12-2010 2:08pm
    #1
    Corsendonk
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,871 ✭✭✭


    Hi John,
    Since this will be a hot topic soon next year I thought I would get more information from the EU side. Ireland will be introducing water charges for the first time next year.

    Can you tell me do all other EU member states have water charges?
    Are private bore holes metered too?
    Is money gained by water charges purely ring fenced for spending on improving the water infrastructure of a member state rather than a stealth tax?
    Is there any legal action against the Irish state by the EU concerning poor water standards?

    Thanks
    Corsendonk


Comments

  • #2
    Ponster
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 10,912 Mod ✭✭✭✭Ponster


    Corsendonk wrote: »
    Can you tell me do all other EU member states have water charges?

    I'll see if I can find a link but as far as I know, every country in the world charges for water except Ireland which abolished charges in 1996.


  • #3
    Scofflaw
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,283 ✭✭✭✭Scofflaw


    1. A couple of other EU countries don't charge - Slovenia and Malta for example (see here) - but the majority do.

    2. Private boreholes will not be metered in Ireland. The charge is based on use of mains water.

    3. It's not really legally possible in Ireland to 'ring-fence' a tax, because according to the law, all taxes go into one pot. It is only possible to agree that the tax take from the water charges will be matched by spending, but that's on a Budget by Budget basis - it's not possible to legally commit the government to always spend a matching amount. You could write such a commitment into a Finance Act, but each Budget involves a new Finance Act anyway.

    The point of the charges is not to provide money for water infrastructure, but to help eliminate wastage of water by giving people an incentive to do so.

    4. At least one action:
    The European Commission is sending Ireland a final written warning for failing to comply fully with a 2002 European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling requiring drinking water supplies to be kept free of E.coli bacteria. It is sending Ireland a similar warning for failing to comply with a 2005 ECJ ruling requiring greater controls on polluting discharges to surface water by local authorities. If the responses are unsatisfactory, the Commission may ask the ECJ to impose financial penalties on Ireland. The Commission is also referring Ireland to the ECJ for failing to give adequate rights to citizens to legally challenge decisions in cases involving environmental impact assessments and integrated pollution prevention and control. At the same time, action taken by Ireland to ban drift-netting of Atlantic wild salmon at sea has allowed a case to be closed.

    cordially,
    Scofflaw


  • #4
    Ponster
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 10,912 Mod ✭✭✭✭Ponster


    Scofflaw wrote: »
    1. A couple of other EU countries don't charge - Slovenia and Malta for example (see here) - but the majority do.
    [/URL]:



    cordially,
    Scofflaw


    Hmmm, I think that site is out of date. Slovenia introduced charges in 2003 and Malta even earlier. According to WHO, Ireland and Dubai are the only countries without water charges.


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