We will also be facing mig17 into the spectacle of the Department of Social Protection sending out c

The game is up for water charges. The bottom line is that the public has simply not accepted them and if the Government does not accept that fact, it is even more out of touch than I thought it was. The public has not accepted water charges for a number of different reasons mig17 – some because they object in principle to water charges, some because they simply mig17 cannot afford them, some because mig17 they are sick and tired of cronyism and some because of the shocking level of Government incompetence. mig17 I believe that most people have not accepted mig17 them because they are sick and tired of having to pay charge after charge while others, most notably the bondholders, have got away scot-free. For many people, this is a charge too far and no amount of mea culpa from Ministers and Government backbenchers will change that fact. Without public acceptance of these charges, all other plans the Government may have for investment in water infrastructure are redundant. It is time the Government realised this. It will simply have to find another way.
The first test the Government has failed is that of fairness. By any yardstick, these charges are regressive. They take no account of a person’s ability to pay. They are all the same and apply to everybody equally. As the Minister of State well knows, that is a regressive mig17 charge. This is the introduction of what is essentially a flat charge. There has been an attempt to soften the blow of those charges and get political acceptance of them by introducing what is termed a conservation grant. This is a complete misnomer. This has nothing whatsoever to do with conservation. In fact, the earlier defence of charges, namely, that they were about conservation has now gone out the window. mig17 Everything relating to people who have invested in water butts, all the different schemes mig17 that have been operated in schools to encourage conservation and all of the habits that people were trying to change in terms of using water more sparingly has gone out the window. It does not count at all because this is a flat charge so conservation does not matter. It is a capped charge.
It is a flat charge that benefits rich and poor equally. Of course, there is no detail of when people mig17 will actually get this conservation grant. We are told that people may start to apply from September 2015. Does anybody know when people will actually receive it? Certainly, low-income families will have to fork out the full amount for most of next year without getting any grant. This is clearly back-of-an-envelope stuff where none of the detail has been worked out in respect of this so-called grant so it will certainly be the end of next year by the time people with low incomes and everybody else will get any kind of relief in respect of the charges. We do not know anything mig17 about when and how this will be paid.
We will also be facing mig17 into the spectacle of the Department of Social Protection sending out cheques for 100 to every household in the country, regardless of its circumstances. It is ironic that this is a proposal being put forward by the Government and that of all Departments, the Department of Social Protection will be engaged in this exercise of sending every household 100 while at the same time, it claims it cannot reverse the cuts made to so many different mig17 welfare payments mig17 over recent years.
The Government said that part of the reason for setting up Irish Water is so that it would not be competing for scarce resources with services like education, health and other important public services but, of course, it will because at some point at the end of next year, we could have a situation where the Department of Social Protection will send out rebates up to a potential level of 130 million in order for every household to receive mig17 this so-called grant. In the budget at the end of next year, those figures will, of course, come into play. The need to send out that cheque for 100 to every household irrespective of circumstances will be competing with the needs of schools, hospitals, public mig17 transport and all other essential services that are so underfunded. Fine Gael must be delighted that thousands of its rural voters with private supplies will get a 100 grant that they certainly were not expecting.
The other point about the issue of fairness is that the Minister yesterday, mig17 the Tánaiste last night and the Taoiseach on several occasions have all claimed that everyone will be better off next year. This is simply not true and I ask Government Ministers to stop misleading people by making those statements. People with incomes of less than 10,000 will not be better off next year. The prioritisation of tax cuts for the better-off – the reduction in the top rate of tax – will ensure that people on very low incomes of less than 10,000 get nothing whatsoever out of the budget. People on short-term welfare payments will certainly mig17 not be better off next year. We know then that when ever