Sinn Féin Senator David Cullinane has described the announcement that the government is to send letters to households across the state inviting them to apply for the conservation grant as a "crazy situtation"

Senator Cullinane said the whole logic of the Govt's policy on water charges was to ensure water conservation.

He said: "We have a crazy situation where we have a flat rate water charge and a water conservation grant which isn't linked to water conservation at all. The whole logic of the government's policy on water charges was to ensure water conservation. This argument is now null and void and utterly empty.

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"The Eurostat ruling exposed the lunacy of the conservation grant which requires a separate registration process with the Department of Social Protection. The cost of administering the grant will set the tax payer back €6 million, money that could be used to fund vital public services. Rather than fix the mess, the government would rather argue with Eurostat.

"The government should go back to the drawing board, scrap water charges in their entirety and fund water through general taxation and end nonsense of these conservation grants on the one hand and these charges on the other. The conservation grant is only papering over the cracks of failed policy."

(CD/LM)