FF planned to charge households €400 for water from 2012 – Flanagan

Fine Gael Party Chairman, Charlie Flanagan, has today (Wednesday) said the public has yet again been reminded of Fianna Fáil’s outrageously hypocritical stance on water charges. Deputy Flanagan pointed out that under Fianna Fáil’s deal with the Troika, water charges would have been introduced as early as 2012.

“Fianna Fáil is relentless in its attempts to rewrite history. Under its deal with the Troika, Fianna Fáil promised to start charging for water by 2012 or 2013. And under its National Recovery Plan, published in 2010, Fianna Fáil wanted to raise €500 million from the measure – meaning households would be paying an average of €400 a year for water.

“So if Fianna Fáil was still in power, not only would you already be paying water charges, you would be paying much higher rates.

“In its Election Manifesto in 2011, Fianna Fáil promised for a third time to introduce a water metering system.     But what does the Party do in Opposition? Pretend this all never happened.

“Fianna Fáil has made an art of out U-turns since it was forced out of Government. Despite promising to introduce a property tax and water charges while still in Government, the Party has opportunistically opposed these measures now that it is in Opposition. The public will see through these outrageously hypocritical tactics.

“Fianna Fáil failed for years to invest sufficiently in our water services, leaving us with a system riddled with leaks and other problems. This Government is determined to bring our water system up to scratch, for the benefit of householders and job creation.”

ENDS