So we are only hours away from being charged for our Domestic and Waste water (in addition to the monies we already pay) billing beings at midnight tonight and the 1st bill you will receive will be in January 2015 and The Commission for Energy Regulation has announced that customers of Irish Water are to have their metered charges capped at an assessed rate for the first nine months of use. The cap is those without meters and they will pay an annual rate of €176 for a household with one adult – or €278 for a home with two adults and an additional €102 for any other resident adults within a home and there is no charge for children. Under the metered system children will be given 21,000 of free allowance or the equivalent to 262.2 baths a year, or 14 flushes of the toilet per day per child, this 21,000 will be used up pretty fast.
(Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin)
There are two types of ‘customer’ – those with meters who will pay for the water they use, and those without meters who will pay an assessed charge.
Customers who live in areas where the water is unfit for human consumption will not pay any water supply charge, once a boil water notice has been in place for at least 24 hours – however they will continue to be charged for waste water services at €2.44 per 1,000 litres.
If you are one of the ‘customers’ who are metered the charges are as follows, €2.44 per 1,000 litres of Domestic water usage and €2.44 per 1,000 litres of Waste water used, if people take water and waste water services from Irish Water, they will pay €4.88 per 1,000 litres, what does this mean to you in real usage terms?
- A bath will cost you an estimates 39c as it uses about 80 litres of water
- Opting for a shower is a little less at 19c as this uses a little under 40 litres of water
- Turning on your washing machine is estimated to cost you 31c
- and flushing your toilets is expected to cost 4c each and ever flush
I expect these charges (if people opt to pay) will have serious implications to peoples health, in the fact some parents may ask their children not to flush the toilet each time they use it or to limit the washing of their hands post using the toilet, people are likely to not shower as often or wash their clothes as much as they really should.
At this time we have adults missing a dinner or two throughout the week in order to feed their children, yet these very same people are now being asked to find the money to pay this additional utility bill.
There are 3 adults and 1 child in my house hold, on the un metered charges I would be billed €380 and if metered this could sky rocket. Imagine we all shower each day, this is a whopping 76c and god forbid we need to use the washing machine just the once at 31c and we flush the toilet only 16 times per day (this is only 4 times per person per day) at 64c and this is before we wash our hands or wash the dishes (or use a dishwasher) we are looking at in excess of €2.00 per day, over the 365 days in the year this is a massive €730. this is the initial charges capped until 2016 as stated by the Commission for Energy Regulation, but imagine what year 3 or 4 will bring, I would say this will only ever go up in cost and never down.
And what about the people who have a holiday home or a place they visit for a few weeks of the year? well these people will have a non resident charge of €125 per year imposed.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has said the system for charging for water is fair and equitable.
Speaking ahead of a Cabinet meeting this morning, the minister said all the issues that had been of concern to people had been addressed.
Mr Howlin said it was “a good idea” to place a nine-month cap on charges.
He added that the exact charge could not have been estimated accurately until the composition of each house in the State was known.
Speaking on the same programme, Paul McGowan of the CER said if people take water and waste water services from Irish Water, they will pay €4.88 per 1,000 litres – or half that per service.
He said that initially charges will be capped from the date of the installation of a metre in a household.
“So if your metre is installed already then your charges will be capped at the assessed charge until June of next year.
“If your metre gets installed, let’s say in January of next year, then you’ll have until September for this cap to apply.”
In relation to leaks, Mr McGowan said Irish Water will be putting in place a first fix policy and anyone believing they have a leak should contact the utility.
He said details of the policy would be published on the Commission’s website.
He said customers who have been overcharged will receive a rebate after six months.
Mr McGowan also said that water coming in to a house must be deemed to be undrinkable for 24 hours before the charge comes into effect to be eligible for a 100% discount.
He said all the caps and charges announced today apply to the end of 2016.
Thank you for reading you FABULOUS people
❤ Claire with the Hair ❤
ClareWithTheHair.Com 