Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

An in-house study is being carried out by the engineering staff in my Department and Irish Water to see what can be done about particular categories of apartments and shared service connections and about how we can actually meter those properties more quickly than we anticipated. We are expecting to be able to meter some of those properties in 2015. Arising from the survey carried out by local authorities, Irish Water and ourselves we now expect approximately 48,000 of the properties to be metered. It has nothing to do with the ambitious metering programme for straightforward domestic dwellings. It is to examine how we can bring more meters into play in apartments as well as to examine the problems associated with shared connections. We have identified that there are approximately 300,000 of these properties and we believe in 2015 between 48,000 and 50,000 of these can be metered.

If a dwelling is not metered the occupant will be on an assessed charge in the meantime. Then, when the dwelling becomes metered the occupant will be in a position to pay according to the meter. As the Deputy is aware, we will be considering the issue of a rebate for people who believe their assessed charge was far higher than the subsequent metered charge.

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