Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide a timeline for the rolling out of water meters and the implementation of water charges on households here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10838/13]

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. 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.

It is expected that the installation of meter boxes and domestic water meters will begin in the middle of this year and will be rolled out as quickly as possible thereafter. The Water Services Bill 2013 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 measures. The framework for water charges will be developed and consulted on by CER as part of the regulatory process. It is not intended that domestic water charges will commence before 2014.