Written answers

Tuesday, 9 May 2017

Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government

Water Charges Administration

Photo of Brendan SmithBrendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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224. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the safeguards in place to stop households being charged twice for water charges in circumstances in which a person (details supplied) operates a business from within their house which does not have a water supply; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21396/17]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local levels. 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.  Domestic water charges have been suspended since 1 July 2016.

Any business connected to a public water supply is liable for charges as a non-domestic customer. If the premises is also used for domestic purposes it is termed a mixed-use customer. From 1 January 2015 mixed-use customers were billed separately for their domestic and non-domestic water services and had a separate account number for each. Mixed-use customers were charged for the domestic component of their usage based on occupancy. It should be noted that the charging arrangements for the non-domestic component of the customer’s water use remain the same as operated by local authorities in 2013. In the case of a metered customer, the volume to be charged at the non-domestic rate is the metered volume in excess of the current local authority domestic allowance.

The CER is 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.

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.

Furthermore, the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) has a statutory responsibility to provide a complaints resolution service to Irish Water customers who have an unresolved dispute with the utility. A Customer Care Team has been set up within the CER to deal directly with customers who have complaints. Further information about CER's complaints procedure is available on their website at .

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