MEP MARIAN HARKIN TO SPONSOR REPRESENTATIVES OF ' OUR WATER ' TO BRUSSELS

Marian Harkin, MEP, invited ‘Our Water’ group to explore and assess possibilities of saving Ireland's endangered European 9.4 Domestic Water Charges exemption.

Citizens from around the country have formed a group called ‘Our Water’.   Representatives of the group held a meeting in Letterkenny, Co Donegal,  on February 9th, 2018 with MEP Marian Harkin. 

Ms Harkin agreed to lend her full support to the group.

The Our Water group insist that the Irish Government’s failure to renew Ireland's 9.4 Exemption will be disastrous for the people and it will mean a return to 1) Water Metering  2) Water Billing and  3) The possibility of Water Privatisation.

Michael Mooney, spokesperson for ‘Our Water’ said “Irish people haven't given up their fight, only our politicians have done that. We demand that the government protect the peoples’ interests and renew and maintain our 9.4 Exemption.  If they don’t, our right to and control of this invaluable resource, will be handed over to Brussels and private interests."

Members of the Our Water’ group meeting with MEP Marian Harkin.   L to R; Brendan Kelly, Enda Craig, Marian Harkin, Mark McAuley, James Quigley and Michael Mooney

Ms Harkin  agreed to help the group explore the possibilities of saving the 9.4 Exemption as contained in the Water Framework Directive, 2000/60/EC.

The  Exemption  allows Ireland to opt out of full cost recovery of domestic charges if the Government so wish.  Ireland is now on the brink of doing away with it forever and if this happens the Irish Government will be responsible. This point was emphasised by Ms Harkin at the meeting when she said that if this clause is not invoked in the next River Basin Management Plan (RBMP)  then the Irish Government will hand power to Brussels who will determine our domestic funding and infrastructure. The next draft RBMP can be viewed on DHPLG website and is due to be submitted to Brussels in April 2018.  Unfortunately the public will not have the opportunity to view the final plan until it is submitted to Brussels. 

By that stage it could be too late.

Our Water facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/177113226349071/?ref=br_rs

Oireachtas Water Committee TDs abandon Ireland's 9.4 Exemption. Have we been served?

How could the massive campaign against water charges in Ireland that commanded support from the majority of it’s citizens, where over 57% of households refused to pay water charges and even recognise Irish Water, eventually boil down to twenty politicians bartering away the clear wish of the Irish people?  How could they ignore the elephant in the room?

 

by Enda Craig and James Quigley

 

It happened in the Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water that started proceedings late 2016 and ended in April 2017.  This establishment process was initiated by the government and accepted by the Right2Water leadership and it's five supporting TDs who took part in it.  The committee ended with a very iffy final report and an even iffier initial draft one that by the way,  prompted the Right2Water TDs to prematurely declare a victory.
 

Allegiance to party supersedes allegiance to country

It was a clever plot indeed hatched in the murky depths of politician and civil servant land, designed to take the impetus away from the anti water movement and trick us into thinking that they were doing it for our benefit.

The majority of Irish people were supposedly represented on the Committee by maybe ten members including five signed up to Right2Water and five Fianna Fáil members. All of whom at one time or other promised to abolish Irish Water, get rid of water charges and water meters. However, of these ten most had an underlying allegiance to party, self preservation or personal agenda and as a newspaper headline once stated ‘party allegiance trumps allegiance to country’.

Imagine giving carte blanche to these same politiciansto champion the cause of the anti water movement.  Pardon us for being cynical but isn’t a politicians' allegiance to party or to their self preservation? 

Brendan Ogle, assumed leader of Right2Water Ireland, having said ″we have done our bit, now it is up to the politicians to do theirs″, has come back to haunt us.  Mr Ogle indeed did his bit by handing the reins to politicians, and these politician went on to shaft the anti water charges movement. 

If these same politicians get their way Irish Water is here to stay, water charges and water meters are on the way,  all done in small print and in the interest of the Irish people. Granted, for the time being, charges are couched in an euphemism of ‘only for excessive use’ and metering, well once ‘excessive use’ was accepted then meters are not far behind.  Anyway ‘excessive use’ can be worked on and manipulated through time.

Oireachtas draft report ignores the 9.4 Exemption

It's all in the final draft report and the final final report of the Oireachtas committee. What is very alarming about the initial draft report presented by the chairman Mr Pádraig Ó Céidigh in April is the obvious omission of any mention of the River Basin Management Plans or reference to Ireland’s exemption from charging for domestic water as stated in section 9.4 of the Water Framework Directive 2000.

This omission is highly significant giving the fact that Mr Ó Céidigh devoted a whole day to debating what he described as ‘very important matters’  but somehow he did not include them in his report. 

What is as significant is the fact that none of the ten supposed anti water charges members on the committee complained about or questioned this omission or lack of protocol.  If one believed, as we do, that the River Basin Management Plans are the cornerstone of the Water Framework Directive and that the 9.4 exemption clause is the most important defense Ireland has against the EU Commission insistence on water charges,   then surely it should have been in the Oireachtas report and surely any of the five Right2Water members on that committee should have made sure that it was in the draft report. 

The Oireachtas committee for all intents and purposes abandoned the Irish Exemption clause that was granted originally in 2000 in paragraph 9.4 of EU Water Framework Directive that states

 

″4. Member States shall not be in breach of this Directive if they decide in accordance with established practices not to apply the provisions of paragraph 1, second sentence, and for that purpose the relevant provisions of paragraph 2, for a given water-use activity, where this does not compromise the purposes and the achievement of the objectives of this Directive. Member States shall report the reasons for not fully applying paragraph 1, second sentence, in the river basin management plans.″

 

The hard fought and successful anti water charges campaigns of the ‘70s and 90s’ in Ireland were instrumental in pressurising the Irish government of the day into insisting on the insertion of the 9.4 Exemption clause into the Water Framework Directive.  This is why it is known as the 'Irish Exemption'.  Now twenty politicians on the Oireachtas committee have for all intents and purposes given it away.

 

See also http://buncranatogether.com/home/2017/7/29/clouds-of-suspicion-over-omission-of-9-4-exemption-in-oireachtas-water-committee-report

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

by Enda Craig and James Quigley

Oireachtas report omits any mention of crucial European Law session

In this article we will again return to the question of Ireland’s 9.4 Exemption, the River Basin Management Plans and their inexplicable omission in the draft or final report of the Oireachtas Committee on Funding Domestic Water when it concluded business in April 2017.

Anyone not acquainted with the importance of the above topics can read our article Michael Noonan 'Water Charges Required Under European Law' is a Lie or listen to the 30 mins video below or read the excellent legal opinions by Irish Senior Counsels, Conleth Bradley and Matthias Kelly, who, by the way, were invited to present submissions to the Committee by Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin, respectively.

This article zones in on the Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water debate on the 15th February, 2017.   We draw your attention to the fact that the subject of the debate i.e the 9.4 Exemption and the River Basin Management Plans are of the utmost importance to the anti water charges’ campaign, that the debate lasted for a complete session and it somehow never got included in the final draft report or the subsequent final report of the committee.  This final report was passed by the Dáil on the 13th April 2017 and will form the basis of any future legislation.

Report procedures and inconsistency

It could be the case that‘it’s the way they do business down in Dáil’,  as we were informed by a R2W TDs on the Oireachtas Committee, however, as ordinary citizens, we can only take the explanation found on the Oireachtas website itself at face value where it says

″ On an ongoing basis Committees publish reports based on the meetings and hearings they have held″.

Ordinary citizens would instinctively know that any chairperson would include in their report such important matters that were debated for a complete session, especially one with top opinions from senior counsel. 

However, this was not the case here.  One would think that the Committee members, those opposing water charging,  including Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin,  would be up in arms over such an omission, especially since they were responsible for inviting legal submissions in the first place.

Significantly, there wasn't even a whimper after the draft report was presented to the committee member on the 5th April, 2017, (sans any hint of 9.4 Exemption or the RBMP).

 

Understanding the sequence of events for reports

Pádraig ÓCéidigh, Chairman

After all the meetings of the Oireachtas Committee had ended, it was up to the chairman Pádraig ÓCéidigh and his team to furnish a " confidential draft report". This report should have included and reflected the various topics that had been discussed during the committee’s private and public sessions. This procedure allows committee members to scrutinise the contents and then agree or not to a final report.

In this case a draft report was duly compiled and circulated to each committee member on the 5th April, 2017. After reading that report it would have immediately been obvious that any mention of one of the most important sessions, namely, the 9.4 Exemption and the River Basin Management Plans was not included.

Now would that not raise alarm bells?

If the R2W members or for that matter Fianna Fáil members had been genuinely fighting for the 9.4 Exemption as they professed during the 15th February session , they would have immediately taken steps to remedy the situation and insist that the draft report be rewritten to include the vital information.

This did not happen and as we have witnessed, when the draft report (without 9.4 Exemption) was circulated, unbelievably, Paul Murphy, Richard Boyd-Barrett, Mick Barry and Brid Smith headed for the media and claimed a great victory. This was followed the next day by a crowd of R2W TDs who again claimed exactly the same 'victory'.  Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael then rejigged a few words in the draft report during the following week and came up with a final report that again never mentioned the 9.4 Exemption or the River Basin Management Plan.

What are we to make of it

Flabbergasted at the short shortsightedness, appalled at the double-cross and wonder at why the wastefulness of the elaborate legal opinions especially in defense of the 9.4 Exemption. 

However,  such is our paranoia, we can not rule out that Ó Céidigh did include the February session, as per protocol, but for some reason it was removed by agreement of the Oireachtas members. Such was the secrecy of some parts of the committee sessions and the scarcity of information about what was going on especially from R2W that we are really at a disadvantage.

If we take it that Ó Céidigh and his team omitted the February session, then we might look at that as grounds for calling for a mismanagement of committee protocol and ask for the final report to be deemed null and void. 

Another aspect of members not objecting or saying anything is how can R2W hold Fianna Fáil, or vice versa,  accountable if neither objected to the omission or worse colluded in it.

That is depressing enough but what is worse is the lack of any credible answers from R2W, Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil and the Left despite being asked.

One response we came across is worthy of a mention though. That can be found in an unaccredited Right2Water Ireland revisionary article where, in relation to the ‘victory’ claim, it referred to R2W Oireachtas members as ‘Naive’.

Now if there is one description we would never use to describe Sinn Féin, it would not be ‘naive’. More like seasoned, wily, cunning, ruthless establishment politicians, cut from the same cloth as the rest down in the Dáil..

 

30 mins extract from the Oireachtas Committee on Future Funding of Water in Ireland - full debate here: https://oireachtas.heanet.ie/mp4/cr4/latest/cr4_20170215.mp4