Dáil votes by 84 to 44 to sanction refund of water charges

Refunds of water charge payments moved a step closer after the Dáil voted by 84 to 44 with one abstention to pass the early stage of the Water Services Bill.

The Bill provides for refunding of approximately €173 million paid by some 999,000 householders. It also provides for the charging of households for excessive water use.

The legislation aims to draw a line under the water saga that convulsed national politics for three years.

The Government had expressed concern that the repayments could be delayed because the legislation was not going through the House quickly enough.

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A larger than expected number of Sinn Féin TDs - 11 - spoke on the legislation amid hints of potential “filibustering”.

Just two Fine Gael TDs spoke on the Bill, Minister for Local Government Eoghan Murphy who introduced the legislation and former minister with responsibility for water services Fergus O'Dowd.

A Government source said the legislation must be passed by Halloween to allow all 990,000 householders be refunded by year end.

Fine Gael and its coalition partners supported the legislation, as did Fianna Fáil and a number of Independents.

Sinn Féin, Labour, Solidarity-People Before Profit, the Greens, Social Democrats, Independents4Change and a number of left-wing Independents voted against the legislation.

Independent Clare TD Michael Harty, who paired for a Government Minister abroad, abstained.

Referendum demand

Opponents of the legislation want a referendum to retain Irish Water in public ownership. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar effectively ruled it out when he said in the Dáil that it was not a commercial entity, there was no interest in it and it cost €1 billion just to survive.

Sinn Féin, Solidarity-People Before Profit and a number of Independents have warned that the charges for excessive water use are a means to introduce water charges “by the back door”.

During debate on the legislation Solidarity TD Mick Barry claimed that because of provisions to lower the excessive use threshold from 1.7 times the average use of water, it could mark the re-introduction of charges.

He warned that if there was any attempt by Government down the road to try to re-introduce water charges there would be protests even larger than those before charges were abolished.

Labour opposes the legislation. The party’s spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan said the party believed in charging for excessive water use but she described the Bill as unsatisfactory, a “fudge” and an attempt “to get off the political hook”.

The Bill now goes to committee stage where amendments will be debated.