Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 October 2014
219. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to set out the way apartment blocks are to be charged for water; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39677/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraWith 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 defines a customer as the occupier of the premises in receipt of water services. 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.
Up to 300,000 households may not be metered in the initial domestic water 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 will be a matter for consideration by the CER based on proposals from Irish Water. The same regime of assessed charges, based on occupancy, will apply to apartments which are not metered, as applies to other unmetered dwellings.
The approach to charging was outlined by Irish Water in a water charges plan which it submitted to the CER in line with the provisions of the Act. The CER has now issued a determination on the water charges plan. Full details and associated documentation are available on the CER website at:
www.cer.ie/document-detail/CER-Water-Charges-Plan-Consultation/979.
In making its determination on the water charges plan, the CER had to take account of the decisions made by the Government on the funding model for Irish Water and a direction made under Section 42 of the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 in July 2014. This policy direction addressed a number of matters relating to domestic water charges including the billing of properties not connected to a meter on the basis of a scheme of assessed charges based on occupancy. The policy direction also 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.
In its determination on the water charges plan, the CER has decided that all customers will have their total water charges capped at the unmetered “assessed charge” for 9 months. The cap will apply from the start date of the next billing period after installation of the meter or 1 October 2014, whichever is the later.
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.
