THE DEPARTMENT of the Environment has described as “purely speculative” reports that householders will face water charges of between €250 and €400 a year by the end of 2014.
A department spokeswoman refused to say how much the charge is likely to cost householders but said reports it could be as high as €400 were “based on guesswork at this stage”.
She said the Government had not yet decided whether the roll-out of water metering would be handled by a new agency or an existing utility such as Bord Gáis, Bord na Móna or the National Roads Authority.
A consultants’ report by PricewaterhouseCoopers has recommended to the department that a public water utility be established to take over the job of supplying water from 34 local authorities. The report calls for the setting up of a utility “with all water functions and assets to be assigned to it”.
However, Bord na Móna and other existing utilities are lobbying hard to be given the task, arguing that this would prove cheaper than creating a new stand alone organisation.
The department says more information about the roll-out of water charges will be available in February.
However, a flat-rate charge has been ruled out, on the basis that this would encourage people to leave the taps running because no extra cost would accrue. A threshold for water usage below which no charge would apply will also be imposed, though this level has not yet been determined.
Contracts for installing water meters are expected to be issued early in the new year and the department says it hopes to have the vast majority of houses connected by the end of 2014.
Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan says the process of installing meters will start next autumn. “The principle is agreed, that we’re going down this road,” he told The Irish Times this week. “But we haven’t set out the detail of how we’re going to implement it – that will be done by the middle of February.”
The introduction of water charges is promised in the bailout agreed by the previous government with the EU and International Monetary Fund last year.