Speaking in the Dail tonight on the Private Members Motion on water charges Pringle outlined the cuts to the free allowance that many water users will face.
Currently commercial water users that live on their premises such as publicans, small shop owners, post masters and B&B owners receive an annual domestic allowance of 227,000 litres and will now see this reduced to 30,000 litres by todays government decision.
Said Deputy Pringle: “Even an ‘average’ family of two adults and two children under 18 years old will see their allowance of water reduced by 120,000 litres where they live on their premises. In effect this means that these family’s could see their bills increase by over €200 per year.
“This decision today by the government shows that they do not have the interests of the consumers of water at heart and that they see the introduction of the water tax as a revenue generating exercise and not as a water conservation measure as the government would like us to believe.”