Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

564. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 1033 of 4 November 2014 if he will introduce measures to address the specific problem of tenants of business premises, as distinct from domestic tenants, who leave landlords saddled with unpaid water bills; his views on the creation of a register of tenants who have outstanding bills, in order that the tenant cannot just move on to another premises and repeat the process; if he will ensure that local authorities must inform landlords before a service is cut off in order that the landlord does not have to incur an expensive reconnection fee; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2719/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

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.

The existing arrangements for all non-domestic customers are remaining in place with no changes for the time being. The CER will be reviewing all aspects of non-domestic water tariffs under a series of public consultations and will publish the time-line for this process in the next few months.