Irish Water challenged over EU Directive legal advice

Reports that the abolition of water charges in Ireland would be contrary to European law have been challenged by opposition politicians.

Leaked legal advice commissioned by Irish Water’s parent company, Ervia, is said to state that Ireland would be in breach of EU water directives if the recently-introduced charges were scrapped.

Sean Fleming, Fianna Fáil’s spokesperson for public expenditure and reform, said: “We absolutely contest the legal advice being put forward by Irish Water. It’s important to recognise that this legal advice was commissioned by Irish Water, and it should be examined with caution in light of this.

“It’s extraordinary to see Irish Water quoting EU rules as sacrosanct considering they failed to meet the key Eurostat market test last year.”

He added: “Under Article 9 of the Directive, Member States are required to ensure the price charged to water consumers, both domestic and non-domestic, for the distribution of fresh water and treatment of waste water – reflects the true costs.

“However Member States have a clear opt-out clause (Article 9.4) from domestic water user charges, which allows that Member States may ‘take account of the social, environmental and economic effects of water usage in recovering the costs of water services’.

“Even without the opt-out clause in Article 9.4 of the EU water directive, the government’s own flat-rate water charges would not be compliant with the principle of incentive water pricing included in the directive.

“We do not believe there is any basis for concluding from the directive that any future Irish government is tied to water charges. In fact, we believe it is entirely possible for the next government to suspend water charges and invest in our water infrastructure.”

Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan said: “I would be very suspicious of the timing of this leak. If Irish Water have nothing to hide then let us see the legal opinion.”