Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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191. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will address a matter (details supplied) regarding water charges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17073/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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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. The Act provides that Irish Water shall charge each customer for the provision of services provided by it in accordance with a water charges plan to be approved by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER). A new water charging regime was announced by the Government on 19 November 2014. The Water Services Act 2014 provides that the capped annual charges will be €160 for single adult households and €260 for all other households until the end of 2018.

Metered households already have the opportunity to pay less than the capped bill, and Irish Water will be metering all dwellings where it is technically feasible to do so before the end of 2018.

It will be open to the CER to reduce the per unit price of €3.70 per 1,000 litres after 2016, in the context of determining the allowed revenue and efficiency challenges for 2017 and 2018. The CER has a statutory responsibility for ensuring that the interests of customers of Irish Water are protected. This will be central to the CER’s review of all costs and revenues of Irish Water in the context of the approval of water charges and the overall allowed revenue for Irish Water in future regulatory cycles.

The Government is determined that water charges will always remain affordable. Average charges will continue to be kept low through on-going subvention to Irish Water, and section 3(5) of the Water Services Act 2014 allows for a capped charge to also be set for 2019 onwards.