Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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530. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the level of water charges that will be levied on third level students for the academic year, which is of nine months duration; if landlords will be obliged to pay part of the annual water charge; and if this is the case, the proportion of the annual bill landlords will be liable for. [45296/14]

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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531. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if third level students who are in receipt of the maintenance grant will be entitled to relief in relation to water charges; and if so, the amount of same. [45297/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 530 and 531 together.

Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local levels.

The occupier of a property is liable to pay the water charges bill and legislation provides that the owner is the occupier unless the contrary is proven. Irish Water is providing landlords with the opportunity to prove that they are not the occupier by providing the tenant’s name. This will allow Irish Water to contact the tenant to complete the registration and to bill the tenant. The tenant will have to register with Irish Water to avail of the water conservation grant or to avail of lower charges than the default annual capped charge (€260), where they are single adult occupants or his/her metered usage is less than the maximum charge.

Draft legislation which I will be bringing forward will place certain obligations on landlords where the tenant has not paid water charges. In the case of tenants in private rented accommodation, the legislation will seek to insert into all tenancy agreements/leases a deemed obligation on the tenant to discharge their liability for water charges. On the changeover of a tenancy, the registration of a new tenant with Irish Water would be conditional on all water charge arrears being discharged and, in the event of the former tenant not discharging those arrears, the landlord would be entitled to withhold the amount concerned from the tenant’s deposit and would be required to remit the amount involved to Irish Water.

Capped annual charges are set at €160 for single adult households and €260 for all other households, including those households comprising of third level students. All eligible households will receive a water conservation grant of €100 per year. The overall package of measures being put in place is designed to make the water charging regime more affordable and to provide clarity and certainty to households.

In terms of payment, all households, including third level students, will be able to avail of a range of easy pay options, including direct debits, electronic funds transfer, payment by cash at any retail outlet with a paypoint or payzone sign or a post office where a bill can be paid in full or part payments of a minimum of €5 can be made. Metered usage can lead to lower charges than the relevant capped charge; the Children’s allowance remains at 21,000 litres per annum and will apply to all persons resident in the dwelling aged under 18 (irrespective of whether the child qualifies for Child Benefit), meaning children will continue to go free.