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The government should have “political courage” and consider charging for water again, says Green TD.
Malcolm Noonan told the Sunday Independent that the supply shortage in Dublin makes the problem critical.
Noonan said it could reduce consumption and avoid a shortage of drinking water in Dublin.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar says he shares that opinion.
But Dublin Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe says the public has made their views on the water charges clear. He says “normal” usage charges are out of the question, but he can’t rule out “waste” charges.
“Normal household use will never be measured again. We have been through this argument already, there was a very long and drawn out debate about it.
“Despite Malcolm Noonan’s opinion, and it is his opinion, that we should have water charges for normal domestic use that is not something that Fianna Fáil would support and I do not see that it is part of any action by this government.”
People Before Profit has said that putting water charges back on the agenda will put a “wolf” on the government’s door.
Bríd Smith said that any attempt to press charges would lead to a savage response from the public.
“We always said that at some point in the future, they would try again to reintroduce the water rates and now they are trying to ‘wash it green’ by having the Green Party push the boat on this one,” Ms Smith said.
“They learn slowly if they think this topic is going to be accepted or acceptable.
“This is an attempt to turn off the probes. ‘We are going to reintroduce the wolf’, because if they think that they are going to reintroduce the water rates, the public will become the wolf to give the Green Party of any of the Government parties its answer about it. “
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