Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will confirm as per the IMF staff report on Ireland of December 2012, that he has given a commitment to bring in water charges in the near future; the way in which charges will be calculated; the methods of collection that have been proposed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7110/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Government and the Memorandum of Understanding with the EU, the IMF and the ECB provide for the introduction of domestic water charges. It is not intended that domestic water charges will commence before 2014. The Government considers that charging based on usage is the fairest way to charge for water and it has decided that water meters should be installed in households connected to public water supplies. The Government has also decided that Irish Water, a new State-owned water company to be established as an independent subsidiary within the Bord Gáis Éireann Group, will be responsible for the metering programme.

The Water Services Bill 2013, consideration of which will continue in Dáil Éireann this week, will assign the necessary powers to allow Irish Water to undertake the metering programme. The Bill also assigns to the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) the power to advise the Government on the development of a regulatory framework for water services. The Government intends assigning to CER a full range of regulatory powers before the commencement of domestic water charges. This will include powers to set tariffs as well as the establishment of customer protection and dispute resolution measures. The framework for water charges will be developed, consulted on and approved by CER as part of the regulatory process.

Irish Water will be required to have a range of options in place to assist householders in paying their bills. For example, a wide range of flexible payment options is available for the other utility services and it is expected that these will be replicated for water services.

Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his plans to assess water chargers until water meters are implemented; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6579/13]

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if apartment complexes will have individual water meters installed for each unit throughout the complex or will one unit be installed and the cost of water used be charged to the management company; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6845/13]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will outline the way he intends to deal with water charges in apartment buildings; and if he will give a commitment that each apartment will have its own meter. [7226/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 441, 455 and 470 together.

The Government considers that charging based on usage is the fairest way to charge for water and it has therefore decided that water meters should be installed in households connected to public water supplies. Irish Water, a new State-owned water company to be established as an independent subsidiary within the Bord Gáis Éireann Group, will be responsible for the domestic water metering programme and for the collection of water charges from households from 2014.

The Government has also decided to assign responsibility for the economic regulation of the water sector, including the setting of charges, to the Commission for Energy Regulation. The primary role of the regulator will be to protect the interests of customers and to ensure a consistent and appropriate level of service is provided to them.

As the metering programme will still be underway in 2014, an appropriate approach to charging customers who are not metered at that stage will be put in place. This will be structured in such a way as to ensure that it represents a reasonable proxy for usage and is fair. The approach to charges for both metered and unmetered properties will be included in a public consultation taking place this year as part of the regulatory process.

My Department estimates that up to 300,000 households may not be metered in the initial metering programme due to either the high cost or the technical difficulty of doing so. Where conventional meter installation is not possible, it is intended that alternative approaches will be considered. For example, for housing units in apartment complexes, internal metering may be considered.