BRENDAN HOWLIN, the man who brought back 'free' water for householders as Minister for the Environment, believes the Government proposal to introduce metering is 'a tax by another name'.

The Green Party Minister John Gormley announced in the Dáil last week that he plans to bring in legislation this year to allow for the re-introduction of charges for domestic water use.

It will take an estimated two years to install meters in every home in the country, and during the interim period there will be a flat fixed water charge.

And when the meter scheme finally gets going, each household will have a free water allowance before the charges would kick in.

The preliminary fixed charge indicates to Deputy Howlin that Minister Gormley's move is more about revenue-collecting than water conservation, as a fixed charge will not encourage less water consumption.

He was responsible for abolishing domestic water charges in 1996 during a time of militant public and political objection to the tariff, which included councillors refusing to pay their own water fees and scenes of disturbance in Waterford when a private company moved in to disconnect supply to defaulters on behalf of the Council.

'At the heart of it was a real concern at the time about double taxation,' according to Deputy Howlin. 'People felt taxes were very high.'

His own thinking was that water was a basic necessity of life and asking lower-income families to pay for it was placing an unfair burden on them.

He is now concerned about metering for the same reason that it will place a disproportionate financial pressure on bigger families whose usage of water is greater.

Since his 1996 decision, the argument has expanded to include the issue of water conservation, which is being presented as the new reason for introducing charges. 'But if Minister Gormley is bringing in a flat charge first, that blows the conservation argument out of the water', he said. 'This shows that what is intended is a revenue-collection measure'.

Almost a decade and a half on, how does he think the public will react now to the re-introduction of water charges. He feels there will be very strong resistance because household incomes ' have been assaulted by this Government' over the past 18 months. 'Not only do you have direct taxation coming down the line like a hail of bullets but you have indirect taxation for everything known to man. People will see it as a revenue issue.' The proposal to meter also throws the spotlight on the shortcomings of the country's water quality in relation to quality and supply. About one third of the population are not supplied by local authorities but by private group schemes which tend to show higher levels of contamination in EPA surveys.

According to Deputy Howlin, the water contamination scandal in Galway last year highlighted the challenge of providing a system that is of a sufficient standard in terms of quality and quantity. 'That is a basic infrastructural demand of a developed country. We're not able to do this right now. There is a high level of leaks from the system. There's point in pumping more water into a system that leaks.'

'We need to replace a lot of our water pipes. We have a standard of service to provide. That has to be paid for somehow. But if that's not done, it's a tax by another name.'

The Labour Party is due to debate the water charges issue soon. 'It's an issue we will be looking at as a matter of urgency,' said Deputy Howlin.

'There needs to be fairness. There can't be a situation where people are deprived of water. That would be an unconscionable thought.'