Since 2001, national water pricing policy has required local authorities to recover the costs of providing water services from all non-domestic users of these services, including community and voluntary organisations such as sports clubs and crèches. This policy provided for charges based on actual metered consumption and is consistent with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive.
The existing arrangements for all non-domestic customers are remaining in place with no changes for the time being. On this basis, the local authorities will continue to bill for non-domestic water services as agents of Irish Water. The Commission for Energy Regulation (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.