Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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173. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if his or his Department's attention has been drawn to a new connection fee for water set down by Irish Water; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6208/15]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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174. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide in tabular form the connection fee for water, by county, prior to 1 January 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6209/15]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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175. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the connection fee for water in 2015, by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6210/15]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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176. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if or when his or his Department's attention was drawn to changes to the connection fee for water; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6211/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 173 to 176, inclusive, together.

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.

In its decision on Irish Water’s Water Charges Plan, published in October 2014, the CER stated that, until it made a decision on Irish Water’s new connection charges, Irish Water should continue to apply rates equivalent to the water and wastewater related development levies which were applied by the local authorities at 31 December 2013. The CER intends to hold a public consultation on a new connection charging policy for customers of Irish Water. The relevant charges are available from Irish Water.

If the Deputy has individual queries about the levy charged in relation to a particular county, Irish Water has established a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives. The team can be contacted via email to oireachtasmembers@water.ie or by telephone on a dedicated number, 1890 578 578.