Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, to the Chamber. He is a former colleague here, and I think it might be the first time we have interacted since his elevation, so I congratulate him on both his election to the Lower House and his elevation to the position of Minister of State. Given the fact that we are former colleagues, I hope he will look on my request favourably.The Commencement matter refers to the need for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to review the Uisce Éireann water connection policy in order that farmers with multiple land parcels would pay a single customer charge rather than paying for multiple connections. This is an issue of major concern in my end of the country and farther west, more so than on larger holdings in the Minister of State's neck of the woods. I know of one man who has ten meters. Some of them are on fields he cuts silage on. He does not even use any water on them, but he needs to have them because he has a fragmented holding. I also know of another gentleman who has 21 individual connections. Under the current non-domestic charges or tariff rates from Uisce Éireann that are set through the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, CRU, framework, there is a separate charge for each connection and then a usage charge. Most dry stock farmers would probably be in band 1, so with potential increases in October, they are looking at in the region of €90-odd per connection. For the man with ten, that is €900 but for the man with 21, that is between €1,900 and €2,000 per year before he starts using or paying for any water at all. There is no way out of it or around it. If a person has a farm, even a not very big one, because of the nature of the stone walls in the west of Ireland, the person could have, as is the case here, ten, 15 or 20 different holdings in a fragmented form.

My request is that, Uisce Éireann, in conjunction with the CRU and with the Minister of State's guidance, would have a customer charge as opposed to numerous meter charges. The farmers I am referring to would know at the start of the year what their charge was, irrespective of how many connections they had.

I have had a lot of correspondence with a friend and colleague of mine, Councillor Damien Ryan, in Mayo. He has raised this issue in respect of Mayo and has used a very good analogy to do so. He notes that the current system is the equivalent of the electricity supplier basing a person's bill on the number of light switches they have in their house. This is a very good analogy and comparison in that the current system does not make sense. A person pays for the amount of electricity, or in this case the amount of water used, not the number of light switches or meters a person has.

It is important that this be looked into. I know there is a review at the moment that is somewhat delayed. The outstanding tariffs expire at the end of September of this year. There will be a new charging regime going forward. I hope I am not to late and I would like to see that this would be considered under that review.

If the Minister of State's response is not positive, I will not be going away. I do not come here to raise these issues for a Facebook post. I raise them because I feel strongly about them and I want to get something done about them for the people concerned. I will not be going away; I will be in the Minister of State's hair. Maybe today would be the day for him to save himself all that hassle and give me the positive response I want.

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Senator Daly might have a job finding the hair as I do not have much left. I thank him for raising this interesting point. I also thank him for his kind comments at the outset, which were appreciated.

I advise that the Water Services Acts set out the arrangements in place for the delivery of water and wastewater services by Uisce Éireann. These services, including the water connection policy, are matters for Uisce Éireann, which has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local level. Under section 7 of the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013, neither I, the Minister nor my Department have operational function in such matters.

The Senator rightly pointed out the role of the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, as the economic regulator for Uisce Éireann. One of its roles is to ensure there is a fair and transparent system of charging for non-domestic customers. Under the Water Services Act (No.2) 2013, the CRU has the responsibility for approving the charges applied by Uisce Éireann to non-domestic customers for the provision of water and wastewater services. Uisce Éireann applies charges for water services provided to non-domestic customers, including mixed-use customers. A mixed-use premises includes a part that is a dwelling and a part that is a non-domestic premises receiving a shared supply of water, for example, a water supply serving a farmhouse and a farm.Uisce Éireann has implemented a connection charging policy, which provides a standard set of non-domestic tariffs for connections to Uisce Éireann's water and wastewater networks. It provides a single, clear, transparent and fair connection charging framework. The charges are calculated in a cost-reflective manner, based on connection type. Standard connection charges apply to the majority of customers.

In April 2025, the CRU held a public consultation on proposals for new non-domestic water and wastewater tariffs to apply to its non-domestic customers commencing on 1 October 2025. The CRU is currently assessing submissions. I do not know if this review process has been formally submitted to by the IFA or other bodies, but submissions are being examined with a view to finalising the future charging mechanism.

Implementation of the water charges plan is a matter in the first instance for Uisce Éireann. I accept the points the Senator made about multiple holdings for farmers and the ability to combine them into one charge. As I will outline in my later reply, it is possible to have redundant connections removed or to have a temporary or permanent pause where connections are not required. Those applications are made to Uisce Éireann. I accept that what the Senator is saying is slightly different from that. However, farmers who do not have a need for water on their holdings should utilise that existing mechanism, which would reduce the standing charges that apply.

Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I accept the Minister of State's response. Regarding his final point, the people I represent here do not have redundant meters; they are needed. There is an accumulation of costs because the meters are fragmented. Before 2014 and the establishment of Irish Water, the local authorities decided this. They had one customer charge irrespective of the number of meters.

I take on board what the Minister of State said about how neither he nor I could influence Uisce Éireann's charging regime, but it is hard to accept that. We are the policymakers and Deputy Cummins is the Minister of State. As I said at the outset, I will not be going away. There must be some way we can have an input into this issue. It is common sense. I know that seems to be very much a thing of the past, but it is something I would like to revive. We need to have common sense, if we can at all. Either in his response now or later, the Minister of State might tell me how as a policymaker, as public representative, elected on the Agricultural Panel to deal with issues in the agriculture sector, I can positively influence this in future for the people out there. I am not trying to influence it in any way in the negative.

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I fully appreciate and respect the Senator's bona fides on this and other matters to do with agriculture. I know he has always been a strong advocate. As Minister of State, I want to ensure that common sense applies to any measure I am involved in. Under the legislation, however, these are matters for Uisce Éireann and the CRU. A dialogue commenced earlier in the year where submissions were invited on non-domestic charging for customers. People were able to feed into it and take these matters on board in the context of charging mechanisms going forward. While I appreciate the Senator's frustration on this, that is the process for resolving these matters.

In my experience I have come across redundant connections. If people have these, they should apply to have them removed because they obviously result in significant standing charges.