Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The utility surpassed its end of year target in 2014 six weeks ahead of schedule, and is delivering a programme that is sustaining approximately 1,050 jobs throughout the country, providing the kind of economic stimulus we need. Some 80% of these jobs are held by people in one of three social inclusion categories, namely, the unemployed, employees of small and medium enterprises, or graduates-school leavers-apprentices. This far exceeds the Government's original target of 25%.

As well as facilitating usage-based charging, which international evidence shows can reduce domestic consumption by up to 10%, the metering programme is detecting customer side leakage. Irish Water estimates that about 6% of all water produced is lost through customer side leakage.

The presence of meters is helping Irish Water identify leakage that is now being fixed through the interim first fix free scheme. The interim phase of this scheme covers leaks from the boundary of the property to a point as close as possible to the dwelling, but will not include leaks internal to the dwelling or other buildings on the property. This involves identifying customer side leakage between the meter box and the point of entry into the house, offering repairs of these leaks to customers. The utility has offered over 2,500 customers leak investigations under the interim scheme, and plans on issuing 7,500 notifications regarding larger leaks, with notifications prioritised in order of size of leak to maximise potential water savings. It plans to conduct the associated leak investigations and qualifying repairs.

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