FF unwilling to back Dáil move to jettison water charges

Fianna Fáil will not support a Dáil motion to scrap water charges despite being in favour of their abolition.

Speaking at the party’s pre-Dáil term away day in Co Carlow, party leader Micheál Martin said the motion was playing politics and would achieve nothing.

Mr Martin said a motion could not abolish water charges and supporting the Sinn Féin proposal was pointless.

“We are not into optics. We are into action. We are the only party that has effected an outcome on water, ie the ending of the water-charging regime as we know it because our decision to enter into an agreement with Fine Gael to ensure that would happen,” he said.

Mr Martin said the party was committed to honouring the confidence and supply arrangement reached between his party and Fine Gael.

He said Fianna Fáil was the only one to bring about change, insisting it was far more effective politics than those practised by Sinn Féin.

Funding model

Fianna Fáil has proposed that the water system be paid for through general taxation and that the principle of charging for usage should be abolished for good. The party made the proposals in a statement to the commission on how water services should be funded.

It marks a move away from its previous position that charges should only be suspended, as it argued in its negotiations with Fine Gael earlier this year to facilitate a minority government led by Enda Kenny.

Fianna Fáil, which accepted the principle of water charges as part of the troika’s bailout package, had also previously argued that domestic charges should only be suspended until such time as the national water infrastructure could be brought up to standard.

Its submission to the Expert Commission on Domestic Public Water Services – established as part of the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael deal – says the entire system should be funded through general taxation by way of direct subvention from the exchequer.

Mr Martin said he believed water charges would not return.

Budget review

Meanwhile the Fianna Fáil leader insisted his party will not bring down the Government over the budget.

Mr Martin said he expected to have sight of the package before it was announced on October 11th.

He said the party would be requesting increases in the pension and improvements in the education sector to be included.

“We want to see progress on issues that matter to the people,” said Mr Martin.

The Fianna Fáil leader said the party had entered into an arrangement with Fine Gael where they agreed there would be no surprises between them.

He said his party was upholding its side of the deal and Fine Gael needed to do the same.

Asked about whether Fianna Fáil’s support would be withdrawn if there was a change in leadership within Fine Gael, Mr Martin said the agreement was based on policies.

He said the party was entitled to change leadership if the party wanted to.