THE Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, appealed for opposition support for allocating car tax to compensate for water charges. The opposition parties should see the merits of the scheme before condemning it, the Minister said during a noisy question time.
Mr Bobby Molloy (PD, Galway West) said the Minister did not appear to see how people in rural Ireland, who still had to pay water charges, should feel aggrieved at paying double taxation. They would have to pay water charges as well as higher motor tax to finance those in urban areas for whom water charges had been abolished.
Mr Howlin said he was preparing proposals on rural water schemes and these would be brought to Government as soon as they were ready. He rejected suggestions about increased motor tax. There would be no increase this year. Local authorities were being given discretion to impose a 3 per cent increase in 1998 and 1999, and there would be no increase in later years unless the Government approved it.