Water charges 'put off until 2014'
Household water charges will not be brought in for at least three years, the Government has signalled today.
A nationwide metering programme for every home begins next year but no bills will be issued until 2014.
Fergus O’Dowd, junior environment minister, said the Cabinet was not expected to sign off on water charges until usage can be measured in every home.
“I would presume that when all that has happened, then you would have a decision as regards charging as per meter,” Mr O’Dowd said.
The junior minister said installing meters would cost €500 with 1,800 staff working on the project.
Households across the country faced water restrictions last December due to burst and broken pipes, with almost 3,300 council workers dealing with 26,000 leaks during the big freeze.
Defending the planned charges, Mr O’Dowd said almost half of all clean drinking water produced is lost through the country’s creaking water infrastructure.
“One of the major problems is that some local authorities are appallingly bad at the amount of waste water that they have,” he said.
“Some of them lose as much as 60% of every drop of water that they initially start off with.”
The previous Fianna Fail-Green government pledged water charges would be introduced by 2014, claiming the bill for providing drinking water to houses had cost the taxpayer €590 in 2008.
During the election campaign Fine Gael backed water charges under a new state-owned company, but Labour opposed them, claiming they did not address the problems associated with an ageing water network.
The Programme for Government promised to introduce a free allowance and then charge for amounts above that. It also pledged to establish a new state-controlled water company.
Mr O’Dowd said there would be an assessment on how to establish the new public company, which is expected to be completed in October.
The minister said transferring responsibilities from councils to the new company will require “significant legal and administrative changes”.
In January 2010, former environment minister John Gormley pledged €300m towards replacing burst pipes and old mains systems over three years.
Within the Dublin region, 540 million litres of water is collected from rivers, cleaned and made safe to drink at four main treatment plants.
Dublin City Council said that 1,200km of its network is more than 50 years old, leaving pipes prone to bursts and leaks.
Leakage levels in the capital have been reduced from 43% in 1997 to 29% in 2009.
The Department of the Environment estimates that up to 50% of the network could be in need of replacement.
Local authorities handle 1,600 million litres of water every day.
