UCD
FIANNA Fail and the Green Party admitted last night their new coalition deal does not cover a further substantial rise in college registration charges.

And Taoiseach Brian Cowen failed to give any guarantee water charges wouldn’t come in before a metering system was introduced.

Fine Gael said the measures announced in the new Programme for Government would result in €2.5bn in extra taxes.



The Greens proclaimed the heading off of a return of third-level fees as the top commitment from their pact with Fianna Fail.

But college registration fees are expected to rise substantially again in the coming years from the current maximum rate of €1,500.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan sets the rate in the Budget and increased the cap from €900 to €1,500 last year — a rise of 66pc.

Following yesterday’s cabinet meeting, a Government spokesman confirmed the deal on third-level fees did not extend to the registration fees.

“There is no agreement on registration fees,” the spokesman said. “They are separate fees,” he added.

The Greens’ spokesman in government said college fees would not be introduced but couldn’t give any guarantee on registration fees.

“Registration fees will not be a vehicle for fees by the backdoor,” the spokesman said.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the Government couldn’t give the cost of the new Programme for Government deal but it would result in a range of taxes increasing:

Cut in pensions relief — €120m.
PRSI ceiling abolition — €200m.
Carbon tax — €500m.
Site value tax — €1bn.
Water charges — €500m.
Local government taxes — €100m.
Closure of tax reliefs — €100m.
Mr Kenny said his party’s calculation “completely blows Mr Lenihan’s ‘no new taxes’ approach straight out of the water”.

“The Taoiseach is welcome to come back with alternative figures if he wants but, on foot of the new Programme for Government with the Greens, he still believes that he can tax our way back to recovery. That hasn’t worked anywhere else, and it isn’t working here,” he said.

But Mr Cowen said Mr Kenny was being “disingenuous as usual”. He added: “The fact is the tax initiatives contained in the programme are about rebalancing our tax system to keep taxes on labour as low as possible. They require a good deal of preparatory work and will be implemented over the lifetime of the Government.”

Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore called on Mr Cowen to give an assurance that there would not be a flat water charge and the new tax would not come in until the metering was done, the allowances were set and a waiver system was put in place.

Detailed

But Mr Cowen did not give any such guarantee as he said detailed work has to be done design a water charges system “over time”.

“We must find a means to address this given that last year it cost approximately €730 million to provide water and waste water facilities in the country. That is a significant charge on the taxpayer and on local authorities and we must find a means to address this in a fair and proportionate way.

“We must ensure that indiscriminate use regardless of amount by one household vis-à-vis another is something that must be dealt with as a policy matter,” he said.

- Fionnan Sheahan, Political Editor

Irish Independent