Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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1053. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government to set out his views on the timing of water charges bills (details supplied) in Dublin 5; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41906/14]

Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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1068. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government to set out his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding water charges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42214/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1053 and 1068 together.

With effect from 1 January 2014, Irish Water is responsible for public water services. The Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 provides that Irish Water shall collect charges from its customers in receipt of water services provided by it. The Act also provides that responsibility for the independent economic regulation of the water sector is assigned to the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) and the CER has been given statutory responsibility for protecting the interests of customers.

The CER has now issued a determination on the water charges plan submitted to it by Irish Water.The plan outlines a range of payment options for customers of Irish Water, including payments in monthly instalments. Full details and associated documentation are available on the CER website at the following link: .

The CER has determined that if a customer chooses to spread their payments using the payment options outlined in the water charges plan, this will not lead to the loss of allowances. The CER have also recently made a decision to postpone the issuing of the first quarterly bills to customers until 26 January 2015 with a payment period of 14 days for each bill.