Vol. 409 No. 6
24 Tomás Mac Giolla asked the Minister for the Environment the discussions he has had with city and county managers about the making of water charges and the collection of outstanding charges; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
It is a matter for each local authority to decide whether charges for services in their area are to be levied and the scale of such charges. I have no function in relation to the exercise of that discretion or in relation to the administration and collection of local charges and I have had no specific discussions with county and city managers in relation to these matters.
Has the subject of the collection of water and service charges arisen in the course of any general discussions the Minister has had with city and county managers? Is it not the case that the Minister has encouraged city and county managers to pursue the collection of such charges by taking householders to court, in some cases having householders put in jail and in other cases disconnecting the water supply? Such actions have not been taken in any other area of tax collection.
That is not true. I can say positively that I have met the county managers on a number of occasions and I have discussed the financial performance of the local authorities under their control in the context of Government policy. Some of those discussions were wide ranging and adverted to revenue performance in certain areas in a general way. I am not denying that. The Deputy might be referring to the fact that the managers' association launched a publicity campaign in September 1988 regarding service charge collection. The introduction of that campaign was not subject to my approval or to the approval of the Department. The Department were not consulted in any way and the Minister had no involvement in that campaign.
Did the Minister support the publicity campaign by the city and county managers to which he referred and the campaign which followed by some city and county managers of pursuing the collection of water charges to the point of putting householders in jail? In view of the Taoiseach's statement yesterday, have the Government abandoned their commitment to repeal the legislation which allowed the imposition of water charges in the first place?
The implementation of legislation is a matter for the statutory body charged with that responsibility. The Minister has in no way indicated to managers or to their association that they should do anything in this matter. I am concerned that they act properly in the performance of their functions. They have done so quite well over the past few years, particularly when one considers that their accumulated deficit in 1987 was over £80 million. The deficit of local authorities is now about £40 million. They have improved their performance quite dramatically and this has led to a much better system of management in the local authorities concerned.
Does the Minister support the jailing of householders for nonpayment of water charges?
That is a separate question.
The question of court action by local authorities or decisions taken by the court is a matter for the judicial system.
Do you support it? You obviously do.
