The European Commission has once again reiterated it’s stance saying Ireland will have to pay water charges in the future after its derogation offered to Ireland has long expired.
The news comes after the Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella met the new Minister for Housing Simon Coveney in Brussels on Friday to discuss the Irish Governmentâs decision to suspend water charges for nine months.
Mr Coveney said that Ireland will have to pay charges as the EU will not allow the current circumstances to continue: Mr Coveney further explained: âThe commissionâs job is to ensure every country is treated equally in terms of their obligations and the commitments in the Water Framework Directive.”
âBut I spent a lot of time explaining that Ireland was in a process here and part of that process was to outline our international and national obligations and to make recommendations that are consistent with those.”
âThe expert commission needs the space to do that. They listened and understood the place we were coming from, but I donât want to put words into their mouths.â
Source: Irish Times