This article is from page 16 of the 2012-04-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
CLARE farmers could be the unlikely winners of the move to domestic water metering, with water charges for farmers in Clare likely to be reduced under the new Irish Water organisation.
At present, each farmer in Clare pays Clare County Council a standing charge of € 145 per water metre, per year – almost 350 per cent more per year than the annual charge per domestic metre proposed by Irish Water.
The standing charge for farmers varies drastically from one local authority to the next, with farmers in Wicklow paying just € 60 per year, while farmers in Donegal pay € 175 per year.
Speaking to The Clare People yesterday, the Clare chairperson of the IFA, Andrew Dundas, says his members are hopeful of a standing charge reduction under Irish Water.
“We would be hopeful that the charges would at least be evened out across the country. It is very unusual, you play an awful lot more in some counties than you would in some others,” he said.
“We are hoping that we will get a reduction here in Clare. But it’s not just the reduction; we are hoping that the system would be an awful lot more efficient when it comes to things like stopping leaks and things like that.
“We are hoping that under the new company the whole water system will be run better.”
The Southeast Clare farmer did welcome the announcement that farmers who use water drawn from their own wells will not be hit with a charge under the new system.
“Some farms in Clare have their own wells that they paid to put in place themselves and it is some relief that they won’t be charged again,” he said.
“These wells were not cheap for the farmers to put in place in the first place and I think it would have been very unfair if farmers were to be charged to draw water from a well that they built themselves,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Mayor of Clare, Cllr Pat Hayes (FF), has said that the proposed establishment of Irish Water by the Government has raised more questions than it has provided answers about the transfer of Clare’s water and wastewater assets from Clare Local Authorities to the independent, State-owned subsidiary.
“If Clare’s water and wastewater infrastructure is transferred to Irish Water it is imperative that the funding invested by Clare ratepayers to develop this asset is returned to the county,” said Mayor Hayes.