Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is very difficult to divine whether there is an answer to the question in that reply. I asked whether the Minister foresaw a reduction in charges to commercial water users under Irish Water. The message is being given that commercial users will see a reduction because domestic users who have had water free for so long will now be paying. I do not believe this will be the case. As the Minister knows, the local authorities have been operating for many years on a full cost-recovery basis in the charging of commercial users and have also operated under the polluter pays principle in certain water charges. This means that the supply of water to commercial users in local authority areas is fully paid for by those commercial users, and therefore it will have no bearing on the cost of providing water to domestic users or related charges. In my view, the commercial users will not see a significant reduction. I am interested to hear the Minister's views.

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