Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 318: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if local councils can waive water charges for schools; if he proposes to change legislation to allow councils to have discretion in relation to the collection of water charges from schools; his views on whether it is fair or just to schools particularly in disadvantaged areas paying large sums of money for water; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31112/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Local authorities are required to recover the cost of providing water services from all users of these services, with the exception of householders. The intention is that the cost of providing water services to the non-domestic sector will be recovered by local authorities by means of a meter based volumetric charge. Wavier provisions in relation to local government services are designed only to address personal hardship and cannot therefore appropriately accommodate the non-domestic sector.

In order to provide a transparent and equitable cost recovery mechanism for water services, as envisaged by the EU Water Framework Directive, local authorities are now moving towards the metering of all non-domestic users, including schools. Metering of water usage should incentivise all non-domestic users, including schools, to conserve their use of water and so minimise this element of their running costs.