WE ARGUED last month that the government had made compliant taxpayers look like mugs for paying their water bills. We reached this conclusion when it was revealed every household registered with Irish Water would be eligible for an annual grant of €100 from the state, regardless of whether they paid their water charges. “This preposterous arrangement means that thousands of households are effectively been rewarded for refusing to pay their water charges,” we wrote.
The sheer stupidity of this decision seems to have finally percolated up to the top of government. In the usual kite-flying manner, we learnt last week that the coalition is considering whether the grant should be available only to compliant payers, as well as those who already pay for their water through group schemes. Why anyone believed it was remotely fair that compliant and non-compliant water users should be treated in the same manner in the first place remains a mystery, but that’s par for the course where the operation of Irish Water is concerned. A change of policy, therefore, would be welcome but wouldn’t go far enough. Even with this change there would still be a two-tier system as there is no indication that Irish Water will be allowed to impose meaningful measures that would punish non-payers of water charges. Don’t expect that matter to be resolved until a new government is in charge.
If a change in policy on the €100 grant becomes reality, then such a U-turn would signal a fundamental change in the relationship between the government and Irish Water. Having failed the EU test that would have allowed Irish Water to be treated as an ESB-type commercial entity with independent borrowing powers, the company is now back on the state’s books. Despite much bluster about the accuracy of the figures used by Eurostat to reach its conclusion about Irish Water, and assurances that the company can pass the test next year, it seems the coalition may be resigned to keeping the company on the government’s balance sheet. Eurostat was critical of the state grant and complained, correctly, that the price being charged for water was not economical. As the charges were among the lowest in Europe, we already guessed as much. With so much public resistance to water charges, the government has decided it must make a long-term commitment to the grant. That means it will face the same criticism from Eurostat when it puts Irish Water forward for the “market test” again. It is not in Ireland’s political interest to risk another rebuff.
Until the public can be weaned off the grant and water charges are allowed to move up to their economic value, Irish Water is destined to become just another spending drain on the exchequer, leaving the environment minister fighting for investment with health, education, social protection and every other government department.
Critics of Irish Water, both inside and outside the Dail, want the company abolished and the management of water returned to local authorities. The coalition, having invested so much political capital in this project, is not prepared to do that. Instead, it is adopting the halfway-house approach. Irish Water will limp on, but with far less independence than originally planned and financed on a different basis. This change of emphasis will also have implications for Irish Water’s generously remunerated staff and their bonuses. As the company has failed to achieve semi-state status, its overheads will be subject to even greater scrutiny than before. Every euro saved on the company’s overheads is another euro the state will not have to borrow to fund the water pipe replacement programme.
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Alan Kelly, the environment minister, must now order a root and branch review of Irish Water’s operations, ensuring it operates the leanest possible management structure and that all its overheads are brought into line with its modest revenue base.
Smell of cordite still hangs around Sinn Fein
THE IRA Army Council does not exist. The IRA has gone away.” Thus spoke Gerry Kelly, a Sinn Fein MLA, responding to claims last Thursday that the Provisional IRA was involved in the murder of Kevin McGuigan, who was shot dead outside his home in east Belfast on August 12. That may be his honest belief but just because Mr Kelly insists the IRA does not exist does not necessarily mean it is so. For how can he prove this negative?
More to the point, Mr Kelly’s view is at odds with that expressed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which believes the Provisional IRA may well have been involved in, or ordered, the bloodshed. Detective Superintendent Kevin Geddes said part of the force’s main line of inquiry is that a group which calls itself Action Against Drugs (AAD) “was closely involved in the killing”.
The PSNI’s assessment is that AAD is not part of the Provisional IRA but, Mr Geddes added, “it is also our assessment that some members and associates of AAD are, or were, members of the Provisional IRA. One of our major lines of inquiry is that members of the Provisional IRA were involved in this murder.”
Even if there were found to be no Provisional IRA involvement in the killing, we still have to deal with the fact that the PSNI believes the terrorist organisation remains in existence.
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This statement is a bombshell for politicians on both sides of the border, and may have far-reaching implications. The immediate danger is to the Stormont executive. The Democratic Unionists share power with Sinn Fein on the basis its terrorist wing was dismantled. Peter Robinson, the DUP leader, needs to satisfy himself about the intelligence that led Mr Geddes to make last week’s claim. If he doesn’t like what he hears, the first minister will seek to have Sinn Fein excluded from Stormont, triggering a return to direct rule from London.
The resurrection of the Provisional IRA also has implications in the republic. Earlier this year the garda commissioner stated in writing that An Garda Siochana “have no information or intelligence to support the assertion that the Provisional IRA maintains its military structure.”
The PSNI clearly has a different view. Frances Fitzgerald, the justice minister, needs to decide if there has been a failure of garda intelligence.
Furthermore, revived talk of the Provisional IRA could prove to be an electoral disaster for Sinn Fein in the republic. There has always been a whiff of cordite surrounding the party’s most senior members. For the southern electorate, an even stronger smell could really prove repugnant.