Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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518. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government in respect of late payment charge-dwellings under the Water Services Bill 2014, when that late payment charge comes into effect if a customer has not entered into a payment plan with Irish Water. [3563/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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With effect from 1 January 2014, Irish Water is responsible for public water services. The Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 provides that Irish Water shall 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.

Section 4 of the Water Services Act 2014, which was enacted on 28 December 2014, provides where a customer has not paid any water charges within a period of 12 months after the issuing of the first demand and has not entered into, or is not complying with, a payment plan with Irish Water, a late payment fee shall be charged by Irish Water, for each year the charges remain unpaid.

The late payment fees that will apply are €30 for a dwelling occupied by not more than one adult and €60 for an unoccupied dwelling or a dwelling occupied by two or more adults.