FINGAL County Council intends to cut off water supplies to householders who withheld payment of water charges prior to their abolition in December last.
The situation was clarified in Dublin Circuit Civil Court yesterday by Mr James Macken SC for the local authority. He was replying to a motion brought by a member of the Anti-Water Charges Campaign to oblige the council to state its intentions on whether it would pursue water charge defaulters.
The Circuit Court President Mr Justice Frank Spain, said it was clear from what had been said in court that the local authority proposed disconnecting water supplies from householders who had not paid the charges and against whom it succeeded in obtaining court orders.
The Circuit Court office is now to set a date for the hearing of appeals against District Court decisions allowing disconnections.
Mr Martin Giblin SC, counsel for householders who are appealing District Court orders to cut off their water supplies, said it would be an abuse of the court process if the council were to follow through on discontinuance orders without any intention of executing them. He said his clients felt the true purpose of the council was to frighten people in arrears into paying.
Mr Macken said that while South Dublin County Council had decided not to pursue any further applications for water discontinuance orders, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council had continued to do so and had, in fact, cut off two households.
He said Fingal County Council had not made any decision not to pursue arrears of water charges. While its more recent applications had been made by way of simple contract debt, his client believed it was entitled to pursue arrears by means of all statutory remedies' available.
Consequently, it was entitled to decide at any given time on what it considered to be the most effective means of collecting outstanding charges.
Mr Justice Spain said he was concerned that a great deal of time would have to be allocated to hearing this type of case but since," it appeared that the council proposed to proceed with disconnecting householders time would have to be set aside for them.
. Immediately after the brief hearing, Mr Joe Higgins, leader of the Socialist Party and chairman of the AntiWater Charges Campaign, called on all of the main political parties to state clearly their position on "bounding taxpayers for an inequitable tax that has already been abolished".
He was accompanied in court by fellow election candidates Ms Clare Daly, Ms Lisa Maher, Mr Mick Murphy and Mr Owen Poole.
Ms Daly said her party aimed to get a rebate for people who had paid the water charges and an amnesty for those who had refused.