Oireachtas Committee on Funding Domestic Water - A Collusion in Secrecy

A Freedom of Information (FoI) request sent by us on the 8th September 2017 to the FOI Co-ordinator, Oireachtas Service, has been refused by Mr Thomas Sheridan, Clerk to the Joint Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services.

by James Quigley

We requested information on 21 private sessions, including voting preferences and agreements of members of the Joint Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services that concluded business in highly controversial circumstances in April this year.

We asked the FOI Services for

“all submissions, records and minutes of all Private Sessions and any information other than was made public through the Oireachtas site, relating to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services, that took place between 13th December 2016 and 11th April 2017.

We believe there were 21 meetings in total and all had private sessions and submissions that were not made public.

We believe we have a right to know what took place in our name, who voted for what and what is the actual truth of events during those proceedings.

We are particularly interested in the 15th February 2017 sessions and all the 10 'Private Sessions' between 28th February 2017 and 11th April 2017.”

Mr Sheridan replied

″I have reviewed your request, and have considered all of the records to which you refer in the context of the specific provisions in the Freedom of Information Act 2014. Arising from that review, I do not believe that any of the records to which you have requested access falls to be released under the Act, as the Freedom of Information Act 2014 does not apply to those records. ″

(Read Mr Sheridan’s full reply here)

 

Facts kept under lock and key

So other than an appeal of Mr Sheridan’s decision, (costing €30), it seems we are not going to be made any the wiser about the many private sessions of the water committee. We suspect that there were many private deals done between individual Oireachtas members and parties, such is the nature of the sordid political game.  We know we will not unearth that information, other than some honest member with integrity divulging it.  However, we should expect openness and transparency especially in any public representative body such as an Oireachtas Committee and it is a shame and indeed it is ‘fingers up to democracy’ when such a simple thing like knowing what our representatives agreed to or voted on, is being kept under lock and key.

What we do know is the fact that the most important session of all, that of February 15th, including the highly significant paragraph 9.4 of the Water Framework Directive, never got into any final committee report.  (see references)

 

Mr Sheridan sheds light on secrecy

The collusion of all members of the committee in this secrecy and what can only be described as the deliberate omission of the Irish Exemption or any reference to the February 15th session was corroborated in a phone conversation between Thomas Sheridan (Oireachtas secretary) and Enda Craig (Buncrana Together) two weeks ago when Mr Sheridan revealed that contents of reports by the committee was discussed and agreed beforehand by the committee members.

If Mr Sheridan's explanation is the case then surely the corollary to that is that any omissions were also agreed.

 

Chairman gone AWOL

For a fuller picture of this overt 'collusion in secrecy'  it might be interesting to know that a letter was also emailed a month ago to the 'independent' Oireachtas Chairman, Senator Pádraig Ó Céidigh asking why the February 15th session was completely omitted in any report.  We have not receive a reply yet.

References:
The dilemma of paragraph 9.4, our democracy, the Oireachtas Water Committee and Right2Water Ireland

Clouds of suspicion over omission of 9.4 Exemption in Oireachtas Water Committee report

Michael Noonan 'Water Charges Required Under European Law' is a Lie

The dilemma of paragraph 9.4, our democracy, the Oireachtas Water Committee and Right2Water Ireland

What exactly took place in the Oireachtas Committee on Funding Domestic Water that ended in highly controversial circumstances in April this year.  There are many questions that members of the committee and politicians have failed to answer and that the mainstream media have not bothered to ask.

by Enda Craig and James Quigley

 

Twenty members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Future Funding of Domestic Water Services.  Top two rows were professed anti water charges, anti metering and anti Irish Water delegates.

 
 

Oireachtas schedule, including Private Sessions, from the Oireachtas Final Report April 12 2017.  Click to enlarge

The short answer is: there are many many unanswered questions and we don’t know exactly what took place. It's like a wall of silence has been erected and any mention of paragraph 9.4 or what went on in the many Private Session is taboo.

For example, we don’t know what influence Minister Simon Coveney or the Eu Commisioner Vella’s threats had on the process. We don’t know whether Fianna Fáil reneged on promises, whether to Fine Gael or to the anti water charges members. We don’t know why the Right2Water committee members appeared on the Dáil plinth on April 6th and prematurely hailed the draft report a victory.  We don't know whether the Right2Water bartered away some key demands.

And the biggest conundrum of all is we are unclear whether the committee members, especially those professed anti water charges, anti metering and anti Irish Water Ltd members, agreed with the 'Confidential Draft Report' of April 5th, even though there was no mention of Paragraph 9.4 of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC and most importantly no mention of invoking this paragraph in Ireland’s second River Basin Management Plan.
 

Honest information is hard to come by

Even after emailing the chairman Pádraig Ó Céidigh, querying committee members and last but not least our numerous requests from Right2Water Ireland, we still are unclear how exactly the ‘Draft Report’ came about or whether it’s contents were agreed by the members of the committee.

However, we do know that there were many claims and counter claims after April 5th, with Fine Gael accusing Fianna Fáil of going back on promises and Sinn Féin accusing Fianna Fáil of multiple turnarounds and Fianna Fáil denying any of it.

After a phone conversation with the committee secretary Tom Sheridan who told us that the contents were agreed by the members and that is how the process works, we are gravitating towards some kind of committee member's agreement with the contents of the controversial draft report.  However, the only confirmed fact at the moment is not one member of the committee objected to the omission of 9.4 in the draft or final reports.

Surely it is our right to know what this committee and it’s members got up to and not rely on hearsay or misinformation. Basic information like 'what exactly did they agree or barter away during all those private sessions, especially the last ten private ones from February to April, should be readily available?  It is not and no one wants to talk about it.

As mentioned in our earlier article we have a big problem with this committee’s protocol and the numerous private sessions. Who drafted the contents of the ‘confidential draft report’ and why was the most important issue, that of Ireland’s ‘Established Practice’ enshrined in the EU Water Framework Directive, paragraph 9.4 , not included?  Did the committee’s officials decide not to include it?  Or did the members themselves agree the contents of the draft report including the omission of any mention of paragraph 9.4. In other words, in both scenarios, was it a deliberate omission? After all that went on during a full day’s debate on February 15th and the importance Chairman Ó Céidigh gave to the debate, it should have been included. 

Because of the importance of the 9.4 paragraph to Ireland any member of the committee who supported anti water charges and anti metering should have been up in arms over the omission.  There wasn't even a whimper.

A recent email that came our way, (see below) written by Alan Brynes and addressed to all committee members and the secretariat, including the chairman Pádraig Ó Céidigh, confirms the existence of this ‘confidential draft report’.  We say this because even some in Right2Water are denying it's existence. 

In a phone conversation with a committee secretary we were told that the contents of this report were agreed by the committee members. If this was the case, then it follows that the members of the committee agreed not to include paragraph 9.4 or any mention of the River Basin Management Plans or any mention of February 15th debate.  What corroborates this conclusion is the total lack of criticism about the omission from any member of the committee and their absolute silence afterwards.

 

Draft Report email from Oireachtas secretary to Committee members April 5th 2017

 
 

Paragraph 9.4

This is the paragraph in the The EU Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC that enshrines Ireland’s ‘Established Practice’ into European law.  It was transposed into Irish law by the European Communities (Water Policy) Regulations 2003 (S.I. No. 722 of 2003).  Paragraph 9.4 was negotiated by Fianna Fáil , the government of the day in 2000, who were forced into it by past successful anti water charges’ campaigns. Hence it was called the ‘Irish Exemption. The paragraph is undoubtedly Ireland’s best defense against the EU Commission forcing water charges and metering through, in any shape or form.  It must be invoked in the second River Basin Management Plan which will be sent to Brussels on the last day of this year.

Another little bit of information is that the Irish Government is not obliged by EU law to bring in water charges and paragraph 9.4 of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC establishes this.  However, we believe that this paragraph and any form of water charges are mutually exclusive.

Right2Water Ireland blocks Buncrana Together writer

I have been blocked by R2W for posting the comment below on facebook.  R2W seem pretty sensitivity over the issue of so called leadership accepting 'charging for excessive use'.   R2W can't answer the fact that their officials Stevie Fitzpatrick and Dave Gibney are on Dáil record agreeing charges for excessive use of domestic water during the Oireachtas Committee on Domestic Water debate February 2017.  My contention is that their acceptance opens the door to household metering.  How else can excessive use be measured?

by Enda Craig

ENGINEER MEETS R2W WALL OF SILENCE.

Engineer , Mr Martin Lavelle asked R2W on their facebook page. on Aug 28 - " You tell me how a District Metering Zone meter can identify bone fide usage and leakages. You said it could. "

Two full days have come and gone since R2W was asked to explain how district metering can measure an individual daily allowance of water to each Irish home as they, R2W, have proposed.

No answer has so far been forthcoming.

Nor will there be one because it is an engineering impossibility.

R2W has signed up in your name ( listen to clip above ) in the Oireachtas Committee on Water Charges to a ' small daily ration of water with charges for excessive use ' .

This means they have accepted in your name, regardless of statements to the contrary, a domestic metering programme.

Right2WaterIreland's comment

"Right2WaterIreland Enda, we are R2W, you are Enda Craig, we will tell you our 'official position', you can do what you want with your own, but please have a little bit of decorum and stop misrepresenting us.  We have had an official position for more than two years now - one which was sanctioned by a conference of delegates from unions, political parties and community groups. You already know this. Your obsession with misrepresenting R2W is getting highly suspicious at this stage. If you keep it up, and keep spreading lies, we will block you from this page. Thanks"

So which is the official version, the above or one that is on Dáil records, in full video, supporting a statement on radio by Brendan Ogle agreeing with excessive or maybe it is R2W support for Lynn Boylan's (Sinn Féin) 2015 European Citizen's Initiative calling for 'excessive use charges'?