Written answers

Tuesday, 9 December 2014

Department of Environment, Community and Local Government

Irish Water Remit

Photo of Brendan GriffinBrendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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443. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if free water agreements made by local authorities will be honoured by Irish Water; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47212/14]

Photo of Alan KellyAlan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 provides for the transfer of responsibility for the delivery of water services from the local authorities to Irish Water and, with effect from 1 January 2014, Irish Water is responsible for the provision of public water services, including responsibility for the charging of non-domestic customers. The Act provides that Irish Water can 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.

Existing arrangements for all non-domestic customers are remaining in place with no changes for the time being. On this basis, any agreements individuals have with their local authorities will remain, and the local authorities will continue to bill for non-domestic water services as agents of Irish Water. Within this framework, I would expect that specific contractual arrangements entered into by local authorities would continue to remain in force, but this will depend on the nature of the contract or agreement. The CER will be reviewing all aspects of non-domestic water tariffs under a series of public consultations, so that an enduring tariff framework can be established for non-domestic charges. The CER will publish the time-line for this process before the end of 2014.

Irish Water has established a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives and has contacted all Oireachtas members to provide details of an improved level of service which it is aiming to provide. The team can be contacted via email to or by telephone on a new dedicated number, 1890 578 578.

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