The SDLP's Fermanagh South Tyrone Assembly member, Tommy Gallagher has hit out at the decision by the Northern Ireland Executive to go ahead and start charging churches water bills from 1st April next. Indeed, he confirmed that churches across the North were now receiving their water bills.
Mr Gallagher described the bills as, 'completely unreasonable' and he urged churches, charities and voluntary groups to voice their concern to Conor Murphy, the Minister for Regional Development. This week, he said he had been approached by church representatives concerned that they were facing bills for hundreds of pounds and the prospect of a double bill next year. Indeed, he argued that those parishioners who were liable for water rates in their business bills would end up paying treble the present charge.
Mr Gallagher, who lives in Belleek, has the support of the leader of the Traditional Unionists, Jim Allister, MLA who took the Assembly Executive to task for falling to grant churches and Orange Halls exemption from water rates.
An angry Mr Allister stated: "One would hardly expect a Sinn Féin Minister to be concerned about the important role that churches and Orange Halls play in our society", he went on, "but, I am appalled that the entire Executive backed a plan which will see such premises paying tap tax. Now, the Department of Regional Development has refused to reconsider this decision".
Mr Allister recalled that Sinn Féin's Assembly election manifesto promised there would be 'no water charges', while other parties used the threat of the 'tap tax' as part of their campaign to blackmail the unionist electorate into supporting devolution.
"We now know that no one around the cabinet table – Unionist or Nationalist – objected to Orange Halls and churches having this additional burden", he stated.
The decision to extend charges to all non-domestic premises, irrespective of whether they run a business or not, was part of the privatisation agenda under Direct Ruler. The plan was taken over by Conor Murphy who decided this extension should be charged at 50 percent this year and to the full 100 percent next year.
Mr Gallagher commented: "These water charges that have been introduced amount to £500 and they are completely unreasonable. Parishioners already carry a heavy burden for the up-keep and needs of their churches and they don't need this.
"These very same parishioners are already facing a Murphy tax on water in their own homes so this will be a double whammy. Times are tough enough with the ongoing credit crunch and soaring fuel and energy prices soaring without Sinn Fein adding this further unacceptable burden".
He said his Party (the SDLP) had put down a series of questions to the Minister, and he urged Churches, charities and the voluntary sector to write to him and lobby as their counterparts did successfully in Scotland.
"This amounts to a stealth tax", he said. "And, if you take my own parish alone where we have five churches, they're facing five separate bills".
