A North West MEP says that a vital clause in an EU directive that gives Ireland an exemption from charging domestic-users for water has to be maintained.
It follows criticism this week in Donegal that anti-water charge TDs failed to recognise the importance of this clause and omitted to have it included in a new oireachtas report on the future of water charges.
MEP Marian Harkin says that the clause – known as the 9.4 clause – of the first River Basin Management Plan is still the government’s justification to avoid charging people for water as it allows member states to continue using their ‘established practice’.
But it HAS to be kept in the second draft of that plan which is now up for public consultation.
If it’s not Marian Harkin says we will forfeit our right to have NO domestic water charges and the government will have noone to blame but itself:
