Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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248. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the reason schools are being charged a €1,650 connection fee with Irish Water for their school extension. [48753/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Since 2001, national water pricing policy has required local authorities to recover the costs of providing water services from all non-domestic users of these services, including schools. This policy provided for charges based on actual metered consumption and is consistent with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive.

The Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 provided for the transfer of responsibility for the provision of public water services from the local authorities to Irish Water. Irish Water assumed responsibility for the billing of non-domestic customers with effect from 1 January 2014. The Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 provides that Irish Water shall charge each customer for the provision of 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 intends to hold a public consultation on a new connection charging policy for customers of Irish Water. Pending the outcome of this consultation, Irish Water will continue to levy connection charges on customers requiring such services at rates equivalent to the water and wastewater related development levies which the local authorities applied as at 31 December 2013.

If the Deputy has particular queries about the levy charged in relation to a particular school, 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 oireachtasmembers@water.ieor by telephone on a new dedicated number, 1890 578 578.