Any Government Minister who lives outside Dublin but has a second home in the capital will benefit from reduced water charges on that residence, it has emerged.
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said that under the 1997 Taxes Consolidation Act, all Government Ministers "who maintain a second residence shall be granted a deduction in water charges under the dual abode allowance".
Mr Adams told Taoiseach Enda Kenny that his party’s finance spokesman, Pearse Doherty, had been told in reply to a parliamentary question that Cabinet Ministers and Ministers of State would benefit from the legislation.
“That effectively means that Ministers like yourself, Taoiseach, will pay no water charges for their second homes,” Mr Adams said during the Order of Business in the Dáil.
Bill ‘shock’ As allowances and water charge costs were announced yesterday, Mr Adams said while Ministers would get reduced charges on their second homes, people were “very shocked to hear that their water bills would be vastly higher than you signalled to them”.
He asked the Taoiseach: “In keeping with your programme for government commitment to political reform, has your Government any intention of amending this Taxes Consolidation Act 1997?”
Mr Kenny said that when in Dublin he stayed in a small apartment not far from Leinster House.
He told the Dáil: “I got my notice from Irish Water. I think it’s not metered, unless it’s metered centrally. I’ve been asking questions about it and obviously I intend to pay whatever my water charge is.”
He added: “I haven’t come across an arrangement for the changing of the 1997 Taxes Consolidation Act but I’ll let Deputy Adams have a report on that”.
‘Crazy’ on PPS Earlier Mr Kenny defended Irish Water’s request for PPS numbers from householders. He was responding to Independent TD Catherine Murphy, who said that “we are now in circumstances in which Irish Water has a more complete set of data available to it than any department, which is crazy”.
Ms Murphy said the Government had decided PPS numbers were no longer personal and those who didn’t provide them were being “fined by way of additional charges”.
She said the motivation behind the establishment of Irish Water was not conservation, but to create a new funding model. She asked the Taoiseach what assurance he could give people now and in the future about the security of their personal information.
Insisting that 80 per cent of all bills would be less than €240 a year, Mr Kenny said Irish Water was a public utility, would not be sold, and that PPS numbers could only be used to determine accurately the allowances for households.
