Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Question 991: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his plans to change the exorbitant costs of metered water on farms where there is more than one drinking trough per farm, with many fragmented farms having six to eight water troughs; the reason users should pay for water which they never get as a result of a pricing policy which charges for water pumped from source rather than water used at tap or trough; if there is an unfairness about the system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14303/07]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Local authorities are required to recover from non-domestic water consumers all costs incurred in the provision of water services to those consumers. The application of the polluter pays principle, as required by the EU Water Framework Directive, entails the metering of non-domestic consumers so that a volumetric charge can be applied, with the cost of meter installation being borne by the metered consumers. The cost recovery relates to water and waste water services supplied by local authorities to all non-domestic users.

In response to concerns expressed by farming representatives in relation to the cost of metering and following a pilot billing project in one local authority area, I arranged for my Department to issue billing guidance to local authorities in December 2006, including a request that authorities consider the necessity for special discounting arrangements in the case of necessary multiple water meters on fragmented small farm holdings. Furthermore, in response to the position of farmers with fragmented holdings, the guidance recommends that the total metering charge in such instances should not exceed 180% of the cost of the first connection, irrespective of the number of meters.