Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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543. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the position on standing charges in water schemes, public and group water schemes; if the standing charges will cease under Irish Water; the current position; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43303/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The Water Services (No.2) Act 2013 provides Irish Water with the power to charge for water services. The Act also provides that the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) will be responsible for the economic regulation of Irish water and the charges to be levied by Irish Water will be subject to the approval of the CER. The Act provides specific mechanisms for the issue of Ministerial policy directions to the CER. A direction was issued to the CER under Section 42 of the Water Service s (No. 2) Act 2013 in July 2014 in relation to a number of matters relating to domestic water charges, including that for social and environmental reasons, there should be no standing charge for domestic customers. A copy of the direction is available on my Department’s website at the following link:



Group Water Schemes that are supplied by way of a connection to the public water supply network will have previously been non-domestic customers of the relevant local authority and will therefore now become customers of Irish Water. Under the arrangements determined by the CER, the existing charges for non-domestic customers will remain in place pending a further consultation. My Department understands that there may be some Group Schemes where local arrangements may have applied; the future arrangements in relation to these schemes will be resolved as soon as possible. There are other Group Water Schemes that have their own water sources - these will not be customers of Irish Water and will continue to operate as before.