“You can’t proceed with Water Tax whilst so many fundamentally important Questions remain Unanswered”, Cobain tells Assembly
Ulster Unionist Chairman of Regional Development Committee and North Belfast MLA today said that no green light could be given to the Regional Development Minister’s report advocating water taxes while so many fundamentally important questions remained unanswered.
Mr Cobain also re-iterated his personal opposition to taxing people for water.
In an Assembly speech during a debate on the Independent’s Water Review Panel’s Strand One Report, Mr Cobain said,
“I represent a large, working class constituency in North Belfast, where thousands of families fall within the economically challenged bracket. At the last Assembly election, like many other MLAs in the House I gave an undertaking that I would not support the introduction of a water tax in this mandate, for precisely the reasons that I have just outlined: I refuse to make ten of thousands of people poorer than they already are.
An acceptance of this tax, even with a substantial affordability tariff, will do just that.
Until we establish the most basic of facts on who would be taxed and who won’t be, what provisions are being made to ensure that the most vulnerable in our society are offered protection from falling into further debt, how any bills will be handled, who will be responsible for collection and the method of assessment whether it be based on rateable values or not, it would be madness to proceed.
At the moment we don’t even know the answers to these most basic yet fundamentally important questions. Until these questions are answered fully and comprehensively we would be doing a disservice to the people of Northern Ireland by giving any approval or giving the impression that this Report is a basis for a fair and equitable charge on water.
So it is clear that there are still huge questions to be answered and much more work to be done before those that are advocating a water tax can be given the green light to do so.”