Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The starting date for domestic water charging is being pushed back to 1 January 2015, with first bills to issue from the first week of April 2015. In cases where water is unfit for human consumption, the affected customers will receive a 100% discount on the costs of their drinking water supply for the duration of the restriction. Therefore, customers will be required to pay only for the sewage treatment.

The revised package of measures I am announcing has significant benefits for consumers and I would like to outline these for Deputies. It provides certainty. Every household will know what its capped bills will be until 1 January 2019. It provides simplicity. There are now only three relevant numbers - the two charging structures and the conservation grant. It provides affordability. The absolute maximum net cost is now just over €3 per week. For single person households, it will be approximately €1.15 per week - much less than 1% of most people's incomes or benefits, which puts water bills here among the lowest in Europe. It also provides for conservation. With a meter, households will have the opportunity to pay less than the capped bill and they can use the water conservation grant to make changes to avail of lower charges.

Under these provisions, households that do not have a meter installed on 1 January 2015 will commence paying the relevant capped charge. If after moving to a meter, their consumption for the first year is less than the relevant capped charge, the household will be due a once-off rebate on the amount it paid before moving to a meter. This will be automatically calculated by Irish Water and applied as a once-off credit to the customer's account. This means that a meter can only save a household money.

We estimate that if metered households can reduce their water consumption by between 10% and 15%, approximately half of Irish households will be able to beat the cap and have bills lower than the amounts outlined. In fact, some people will be able to get their bills below €100. When taken with the water conservation grant, this means they likely will be slightly better off because of the introduction of water charges and meters.

See this speech in context