Ireland should reconsider introducing water charges to meet its environmental targets, according to a major new report.
The OECD says despite considerable investment, Ireland still suffers from high water losses, low drinking water quality and inadequate wastewater treatment.
The review says the move to charge certain households for excess use from next year won’t be enough to cover future investment needs.
Environmental commentator John Gibbons says water charges should be reintroduced.
”Consumption based taxes like water charges make sense, and I think an important point here is, every country in the OECD bar Ireland, every country in the OECD has water charges. In the same way I suppose that every country in the OECD has metered electricity because it would be daft not to.”
