Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will outline the exemptions to paying the water charge and the criteria to determine same [7977/13]

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 G roup, 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.

Affordability issues will be addressed by my Department and the Department of Social Protection, in consultation with the Regulator, Irish Water and other stakeholders, in the context of developing a water pricing framework. The agreed approach to affordability issues will then be reflected in the charging structure established by the Regulator.