The Water Services Act 2013 provides for the establishment of Irish Water as an independent subsidiary within the Bord Gáis Éireann Group and assigns the necessary powers to allow Irish Water to undertake the water metering programme. The installation programme commenced in August 2013 and will be implemented nationally as quickly as possible.
Up to 300,000 households may not be metered in the initial metering programme due to either the high cost or the technical difficulty of doing so. Irish Water has commissioned a study on possible approaches to metering properties that are not part of the current metering programme, including apartments and properties with shared service connections. On the basis of this report, it has been agreed to incorporate 48,000 apartments, identified by the report as being easily metered, into the current metering programme. The advancement of any further phase of metering, including the individual metering of properties with a shared service connection, will be a matter for consideration by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER), based on proposals from Irish Water.
The proposed approach to charging was outlined by Irish Water in a water charges plan submitted to the CER in line with the provisions of the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013. In approving the plan the CER was required to take account of a Ministerial policy direction which issued to the CER in July 2014, in accordance with section 42 of the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013. Against this background, the CER has approved the water charges plan which provides that properties not connected to a meter would be billed on the basis of a scheme of assessed charges based on occupancy. Full details of the CER decision are available on its website, www.cer.ie. The policy direction of July 2014 requires the CER to review assessed charges in the light of emerging data on metered consumption to ensure that the assessed charges remain as close a proxy for actual usage as possible.
A range of flexible payment options will be available to Irish Water’s customers. The company will facilitate bill payment through direct debit, cheque, credit/debit cards, over-the-counter payments (at paypoint and payzone outlets as well as post offices), and electronic funds transfer.
Irish Water has established a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives. They may be contacted via email at oireachtasmembers@water.ie or by telephone on 1890 278 278.
