Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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142. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will address a matter (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17158/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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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.

Any business connected to a public water supply is liable for charges as a non-domestic customer. It should be noted that the arrangements in place for all non-domestic customers on 1 January 2014 remained in place. On this basis, the local authorities continued to bill for non-domestic water services as agents of Irish Water. Irish Water is in the process of migrating the non-domestic billing system from the local authorities into the utility. I understand that as of 31 December 2016, 24 of the 27 local authority billing systems had migrated to Irish Water.

Irish Water has established a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives. The team can be contacted via email at oireachtasmembers@water.ie or by telephone on a dedicated number, 1890 578 578.

The CER is also progressing a review of all aspects of non-domestic water tariffs and in conjunction with Irish Water will establish an enduring non-domestic tariff framework. The CER has recently published an information note informing customers and interested parties about the project and will shortly engage in a period of public consultation on the enduring tariff framework for non-domestic water and/or wastewater customers of Irish Water.