Responding to the revelation that City and County Council newly installed public water fountains will now be classed as ‘commercial’ and that councils will now have to pay business charges to Irish Water, Cllr. Jennifer Whitmore, chair of Wicklow County Council’s Climate and Biodiversity Action Strategic Policy Committee, said:
“We will not make any impact on measures to reduce our carbon footprint if common sense and joined up thinking don’t prevail. At the precise moment when we’re encouraging the public, and especially parents of school going children, to refill reusable water containers, Irish Water confirm that they will charge city and county councils additional charges for the installation and use of public water fountains.
If State and government bodies can’t get the small things right in terms of responding to climate change, how can we have confidence that they will tackle the huge challenges that the climate emergency poses to us in Ireland.
“Councils like Wicklow County Council are responding in ways big and small to the climate emergency. One of their initiatives is to install water fountains in schools and in public places to limit the overuse of plastic water bottles. Now Irish Water have confirmed that they will charge Wicklow County Council a commercial installation and usage fee for these small but important measures.
“This is just daft. Some arbitrary accounting exercise, transferring money between different arms of the state, will limit councils all over the country installing these water fountains.
“Is there no overarching thinking that will see the common good prevail? If State and government bodies can’t get the small things right in terms of responding to climate change, how can we have confidence that they will tackle the huge challenges that the climate emergency poses to us in Ireland.”
ENDS
16th December 2019