The future of Irish Water hangs in the balance this week as a number of opposition TD’s want the much hated charges completely abolished, however the scrapping of the state utility will still come with a price.
Reports say Fine Gael have estimated that abolishing the company would cost the Irish taxpayer in the region of €160m. According to Simon Coveney the vast majority of costs would come from paying large redundancies to staff who transferred from local authorities.
Minister Coveney also said the costs were calculated as part of Fine Gael’s pre-government talks with Fianna Fáil: “It was estimated that once off costs for staff redundancies, termination of contracts, transitioning to another model etc, could range between €85m and €169m.
“In addition some €1.6bn additional running and capital costs will arise from the period of the Irish Water Business plan to 2021.”