The Commission for Energy Regulation has announced that customers of Irish Water will have their metered charges capped at an assessed rate for the first nine months of use. Same has also revealed that all home owners who receive water not fit for human consumption will not have to pay any water supply charges.
The charges announced today, confirm that a family of two adults and two children will pay an annual water bill of about €278, with home-owners billed for water use with effect from tomorrow.
The Commission also identify two types of customers; those with meters who will pay for the water they use and those without meters who will pay an assessed charge. The former metered customers will be charged €2.44 per 1,000 litres, but charges will be capped at the unmetered rate for the first nine months of usage. The latter consumers without meters will pay an annual rate of €176 for a household with one adult – or €278 for a home with two adults, while children will be given a free allowance of 21,000 litres, which will be monitored on a quarterly basis and adjusted. People who own a second home will pay a charge of €125 on their non-primary residence.
Customers who live in areas where the water is unfit for human consumption will not pay any water supply charge, once a boil water notice has been in place for at least 24 hours. However, they will continue to be charged for waste water services.
Customers who have been overcharged during their billing period will receive a rebate after six months and all the caps and charges announced today will apply to the end of 2016.
It is unrealistic of Irish Water [P.S…..soon to be made private like the E.S.B.and hence with the eventual powers of charging what they like] to expect such an extravagant sum of money off of the struggling average home owner. Would not the princely sum of say €100 per household per year not be a more realistic figure to ask? I for one, as a patriot to this state [a questionable statement at best thanks to the bank bailout the last government agreed to …note to every voter- F.F. – NEVER AGAIN!!] would grudgingly have to agree to this. If €100 could be collected off of every house in this country would that not be preferable to people been so off put by GREED/POVERTY that they decide not to pay at all. What is the difference between the rich man and the poor man? It is that the rich man can afford the bail!
Ano I agree with you completely. What annoys everyone possibly most is the fact that politicians constantly speak in the plural ‘WE’. Remarks like “WE have come out of austerity and WE should take pride in ourselves in having suffered the pain and stabilised our economy.” Who in God’s name are the ‘WE’ they speak about? The ‘WE’ most certainly were not our present government, who as public reps continued to draw huge salaries and outrageous expenses. This same jelly-like government, at a time when we should have been “Cutting our coat according to our cloth” entered into, using borrowed money and money from a property tax, the lavish funding of a monster called Irish Water prodded by the EU. Soon they will be sucking water from Lough Derg Co Tipperary to satisfy only Dublin’s needs. Time for this government to resign. Time also for Irish people to protest by using a series of one day work stoppages until this same government realise Ireland is a democracy and not an Enda Kenny / Phil Hogan dictatorship run by Brussels.
Was there less suffering when Cromwell came in (1649–53). The Government of today don’t care how much people suffer. I could go on and on and on but it’s a waste of time.