“The sudden u-turn by Fianna Fail on water charges and the excessive use of water this week is populist, totally wrong, and and typical of old style politics without any thought being given to the ordinary people of the country and taxpayers in general.”
That’s the view today of local Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice following yesterday’s Dáil debate.
Commenting further Michael Fitzmaurice said “What we heard from Barry Cowan and his party on Tuesday was that people should be allowed to use whatever amount of water they liked without any penalty being imposed and that’s just ludicrous and makes no absolutely sense”
“When it comes to water usage every comsmer should have an agreed realistic allowance and anyone who wastes water above that allowance should have to pay, If we are going to allow water to be wasted without any sanction, where are we going to get the 10 billion Euro that we need to spend on the system into the future? What Fianna Fail did this week is typical of what goes on in Irish politics. Just because Sinn Fein and AAA/PPP came up in the opinion polls Fianna Fail decided to change tack on water charges and it is this kind of carry on that gives politics in this country a bad name”.
“I have worked in this area all my life and I know that when water meters were introduced in the Group Water Scheme the usage went down by almost a third on average and they paid for themselves in just a few years. It costs a lot of money to put clean water though our taps and we must be realistic about it’s use and wasting it as well”.
Deputy Fitzmaurice went on to say “By the way, this has nothing to do with the EU and what they might do. In fact I would be of the opinion that the EU should have nothing to do with this issue at all. What I want is to do the right thing by the Irish economy and by the people. As an oppostiton TD I will not be popular for saying this but I cannot stand by and allow a situation to come about where water can be wasted “willy nilly” without someone having to pay for it. It’s time for Fianna Fail and others to cop on and do the right thing for once and not bow to the opinion polls”.
“To allow the taxpayer to fund those who waste water is fundemantally unfair and there must be charge to prevent that happening. I am sure that I will get penty of stick for my stance on this issue but we have to do what is fair for all taxpayers and water consumers” he concluded.