asked the Minister for the Environment whether the guidelines of household income as circulated by his Department and which are used by the Louth County Manager, in assessing an applicant for exemption from payment of water charges as to whether such applicants will get a 100 per cent, 75 per cent, 50 per cent, 25 per cent or nil exemption; if such guideline income levels will be raised for 1988 as compared with 1987; if an appeal procedure exists; and, if so, the details thereof; if he will furnish a detailed breakdown of the number of applications for exemptions received in County Louth in respect of Dundalk Urban District Council, Drogheda Corporation and the Louth County area in 1987; and the number of such applicants which were granted a 100 per cent, 75 per cent, 50 per cent, 25 per cent or nil exemption.
Written Answers - Exemptions for Water Charges.
The application of any waiver scheme to water charges is a matter which is appropriate to each local authority and is not a matter in which I have a function. Specific guidelines of household income have not, as suggested by the Deputy, been issued by my Department but local authorities were encouraged to prepare schemes setting out waiver entitlements, in particular for those on social assistance or in other hardship circumstances. The preparation and making of a waiver scheme, in relation to which there is no formal appeals system, is a matter for individual local authorities taking account of local circumstances.
Since waivers are applied for and determined at local authority level there is no information available in my Department on the number of applications dealt with or the amounts waived by individual local authorities.