Sinn Féin reverses its policy on Irish Water

Sinn Féin has reversed its previous policy of keeping Irish Water as a utility and now says it will abolish the semi-state as well as water charges.

The party’s position last year was that it would keep Irish Water but would not levy water charges on homes, instead funding the water network through the taxation system.

However, Pearse Doherty, the party's finance spokesman, has said the first action of Sinn Féin in government would be to scrap domestic water charges and abolish Irish Water.

Brian Stanley, environment spokesman, said there have been "numerous cock-ups" with Irish Water, which he claimed is "stumbling from one crisis to another".

Sinn Féin’s bill which proposes to abolish Irish Water has been ruled out of order by the bills office in the Dáil because it involves the spending of exchequer funds except for incidental expenses, which is prohibited to private members.

Oireachtas officials said abolishing Irish Water and water charges would have the effect "of requiring increased funding from the exchequer".

A policy document produced by Sinn Féin last September said it would keep the semi-state, but a spokesman said circumstances have changed since then.

Signed by Gerry Adams, the document suggested a number of changes to the governance of Irish Water rather than its outright abolition.

“Irish Water must be directly accountable to the Minister and both should be accountable to the Houses of the Oireachtas,” it said, adding measures should be taken to ensure “the board composition of Irish Water is fairly balanced to represent the economic, environmental and societal and community interests which serve both the public utility and the public interest - including the workforce”.

The party spokesman said: “Since the publication of our document Irish Water has stumbled from one crisis to another. We could not have foreseen this at the time. We now believe that Irish Water is toxic and not fit for purpose and that the government should go back to the drawing board.”