Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 October 2014
147. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the provisions Irish Water has for farm holdings already on a meter connected to both commercial and domestic usage and which are now subjected to metered charges for the commercial side and an additional assessed charge on the private residence. [39436/14]
View answerWith effect from 1 January 2014, Irish Water is responsible for public water services. The Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 provides that Irish Water shall collect charges from its customers in receipt of water services provided by it. The Act also provides that responsibility for the independent economic regulation of the water sector is assigned to the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) and the CER has been given statutory responsibility for protecting the interests of customers. Any farm connected to a public water supply is liable for charges as a non-domestic customer. If the farm is also used for domestic purposes, it is termed a mixed use customer. Mixed use customers will be billed separately for their domestic and non-domestic water services and will have a separate account number for each. The domestic component of their consumption will be charged at the domestic unmetered charge, based on the number of people living in the home, regardless of whether there is a meter or not. The household and children’s water allowances will be applied subject to the householder completing the application process.
The non-domestic component of their consumption will continue to be charged according to the current non-domestic tariff arrangement. In the case of a metered customer, the volume to be charged at the non-domestic rate will continue to be the metered volume in excess of the current local authority domestic allowance. Current local authority standing charges and unit rates still apply to non-domestic consumption. The CER will be reviewing all aspects of non-domestic water tariffs under a series of public consultations and will publish the time-line for this process before the end of 2014.
