Ms Maria Graham:

The non-domestic arrangements are the same under Irish Water as they were for local authorities. CER has initiated a project that will examine how connection charges and commercial charges should be developed under Irish Water. That work will continue over the next year and a half via public consultation. From 1 January 2014 whatever a local authority charged for commercial usage became the same for Irish Water.

Some authorities had separate connection charges but the bulk of development levies reflected the capital spending by the local authorities on a range of infrastructure, including water. The water piece was extracted. For example, if the development charge per house was €10,000 then maybe €2,000 was taken out of the total sum for water and paid to Irish Water and the remaining €8,000 was deemed the development charge. The situation has remained exactly the same. That means capital contributions could be made by major users. This mainly happens in the industries outlined by the Deputy where, perhaps, a trunk main needs to be installed in order for a factory to connect with a public system. Such work would have been charged to the user. The user may also have a reduced operational charge. There was a combination of charges.