Irish Water to get €39m in excess fees
At least €39m from excess domestic charges for using water will help fund Irish Water in the coming years.
Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy brought Irish Water’s strategic funding plan to Cabinet yesterday, which projects up to €11bn being pumped into services over the next five years.
The plan to 2024 envisages that €6.1bn will go on infrastructure, while another €4.9bn will go on operational costs.
Funding will come from non-domestic sources and the exchequer but also from excess charges applied to homes. Excess charging was agreed after the new government was formed in 2016.
It is predicted that an estimated 8% of the population, who use large amounts of water, will end up paying levies. However, these do not come into effect for over another year.
The new threshold will see households that use 1.7 times the average amount receiving levies.
Cabinet heard yesterday that excess charges would amount to €39m over the next five years. These include estimates of €7m for 2020, the same for 2021, €8m for 2022, the same for 2023 and a further €9m collected in 2024.
Elsewhere, the Cabinet also agreed to extend compensation payments to women who worked in Magdalene Laundry Institutions but worked in an adjoining institute.
This compensation could be extended in up to 70 cases.
The attorney general will write to the women concerned later this week about the payments. It is then expected that the payments will be processed before Christmas.
The women are expected to get lump sum payments, pension-type supports as well as support for health benefits.
Meanwhile, the government also discussed Brexit and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s new commitment to possibly review the backstop guaranteeing a frictionless border. A spokesman for Mr Varadkar said that he was still open to the idea of a special November EU leaders summit over Brexit. However, a solid deal would have to be on the table, as had been advocated by European Council president Donald Tusk.
The cabinet also discussed the next possible reviews by the Law Reform Commission. Under recommendations from the Department of Taoiseach, work for the commission could include an examination of privacy and technology in the digital era, structured sentencing, perjury and regulation of detention in Garda custody.
