Independent Cllr Frank McBrearty Jnr said he fears local authority services will be drastically impacted upon as a result of the new deal struck between the Government and Irish Water.
Cllr Frank McBrearty
The Raphoe county councillor said he intends to will be asking the council’s executive questions at next Monday’s full council meeting.
He wants to know what the implications will be for the local authorities concerning the fact that Irish Water will have their subvention reduced by the Fine Gael and Labour government.
“This decision will exempt Irish Water from paying the €60m owed to local authorities around the country. I feel the actions of Government over the last number of days have led to even further confusion which has led to more questions that need to be answered.
“The Government seem to have made these decisions in order to ensure that Irish Water passes the market corporation tests which stipulates that over half of Irish Water’s revenue must come from charges.
“How does this affect the 12 year service plan? Who is going to replace the funding which was promised by Irish water directly through this 12 year plan and future budgets of Donegal County Council.
“What impact will it have on services and the raising of rates from Irish waters network. Will this new decision have any impact on the budget that the members of Donegal County Council passed last week for 2015. Will this ultimately force local authorities to increase the Local Property Tax or will the government commit to increasing the equalisation fund to compensate us for any loss of income as a result of the so called climb down by Government.
“Donegal County Councils budget has been dramatically reduced over the last few years and we can take NO more cuts,” he said.
He added we have only now learned that Irish Water is to cost the Irish taxpayer in excess of €84 million per year along with the multi millions that have already been spent because of the mistakes that were made at government level.
“This money would have been better spent on upgrading the network for which local authorities were doing before those services were transferred to irish water. This PR stunt by the government is designed to deflect away from the hurt and anger that home owners are feeling due to this governments failures and that is why I am saying once again that if people to stand firm and not pay the water charges then this campaign can be successful,” he added.
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