Written answers

Tuesday, 23 September 2014

Department of Environment, Community and Local Government

Water Meters Installation

Photo of Michael RingMichael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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489. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will expedite the resolution of a shared water supply issue in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Mayo; and if he will instruct Irish Water to address this issue as a matter of urgency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35288/14]

Photo of Alan KellyAlan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The Water Services Act 2013 provides for the establishment of Irish Water as an independent subsidiary within the Bord Gáis Éireann Group and assigns the necessary powers to allow Irish Water to undertake the water metering programme. The installation programme commenced in August 2013 and will be implemented nationally as quickly as possible.

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. Irish Water has commissioned a study on possible approaches to metering properties that are not part of the current metering programme, including apartments and properties with shared service connections. On the basis of this report, it has been agreed to incorporate 48,000 apartments, identified by the report as being easily metered , into the current metering programme. The advancement of any further phase of metering, including the individual metering of properties with a shared service connection, will be a matter for consideration by the Commission for Energy Regulation based on proposals from Irish Water.

The proposed approach to charging has been outlined by Irish Water in a water charges plan which it has submitted to the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) in line with the provisions of the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013. The CER is responsible for approving the plan , taking account of a ministerial policy direction issued to the CER in July 2014, in accordance with section 42 of the Water Services (No. 2 ) Act 2013 . Against this background, the CER are proposing to approve a water charges plan which provides that properties not connected to a meter would be billed on the basis of a scheme of assessed charges based on occupancy. The CER recently held a public consultation on the water charges plan and it is currently reviewing submissions received, in advance of making a final determination later this month. Full details of the CER public consultation are available on its website, .

The policy direction of July 2014 requires the CER to review assessed charges in the light of emerging data on metered consumption to ensure that the assessed charges remain as close a proxy for actual usage as possible.

My Department has asked Irish Water to contact the person referred to in the question directly.

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