Irish Water - Tax or Charge for service?

Sam Russell

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Back to the OP, is it a tax or a charge?

I say it is a tax because it hasn't been distinctly unlinked from existing taxation. I.e. the government should have specifically reduced taxation to say we are not going to fund water from general taxation because of the consumer consumes and polluter pays principle. The government could then have contributed an amount towards the concept that people should have basic water availability.

Badly marketed charge IMO.

Badly marketed indeed.

1. They should not have gone for 100% metering. They should have gone with voluntary metering - but guaranteed metered premises will never pay more than unmetered houses (provided internal leaks were fixed).

2. They should have guaranteed thay IW will always fix leaks upto the building bounfary, where they will fit a new stopcock if required.

3. They should have charged a metered house a fixed charge plus a very low per unit charge upto a reasonable level, then the same as commercial uses pay. The non-metered house should pay the fixed charge plus a percentage of their LPT as a usage charge (or a minimum amount). The actual amounts to be set by the regulator.

3. The IW charges should be collected by the same method as either gas or electricity.

4. Waste water should be a charge related to the cost of treatment of waste water, not the cost of supply of water. I have seen no costings on waste water treatment.

The cost of setting up IW was a disgraceful waste of public money - it was insane to go about it the way they did. The decision to install 100% water meters was also insane as the revenue to pay for them ate all of IW income for many years to come. Add in the setup cost and IW has no net income for 10 years. Then add in the capping of charges (bypassing the meters) and it will be many years before any net income gets to IW. All before any infrastructure is paid for - what a mess.

Whatever the intention, IW will need a tax to pay its way.

jimmycrackcorm

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Back to the OP, is it a tax or a charge?

I say it is a tax because it hasn't been distinctly unlinked from existing taxation. I.e. the government should have specifically reduced taxation to say we are not going to fund water from general taxation because of the consumer consumes and polluter pays principle. The government could then have contributed an amount towards the concept that people should have basic water availability.

Badly marketed charge IMO.

Admittedly, the Government didn't explicitly state this (nice PR work! :rolleyes:) but
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=96685996&postcount=8
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/budget-2015-top-income-tax-rate-cut-usc-rates-changed-1.1962809

On water charges, Mr Noonan said income tax relief will be available at the Standard Rate on water charges up to a maximum of €500 per household per year. “The Water Charges Relief will be worth up to €100 per household per annum when claimed in the following year.”
Mr Howlin said a Water Subsidy worth €100 per year would be granted to all recipients of the Household Benefits Package and Fuel Allowance, with the measures benefitting 653,000 households.

amongst other cuts.