IRISH Water’s decision to charge for water even before meters are installed for thousands of Limerick households has ran into a flood of local opposition.
The utility company is to start charging from October 1 but have confirmed that many homes in Limerick will still be without meters when billing begins. They have stated that homes without meters that are connected to the public water supply will have their bills assessed on occupancy and average use.
Local Sinn Féin city councillor Maurice Quinlivan maintains that its bad enough that people are being asked to pay for water but that the decision to assess the amount “only adds insult to injury”.
“Irish Water have confirmed that in many cases they will simply be making bills up as they go along. This will cause many people undue hardship as they will have to apply for a refund only after they have paid the bill,” Cllr Quinlivan insists.
“Water tax has been among the biggest issues coming up on the doorstep. The Government would have been far better to spend money on repairing the broken system which sees us lose 40 per cent of water in the system rather than spend upwards of a billion euro in installing meters,” he said.
Meanwhile, Labour Party candidate for Limerick City East, Elena Secas, maintains that Limerick households will benefit from the scrapping of the standing charge, under the agreement reached on water pricing last week.
She also welcomed confirmation of a suite of hardship measures for vulnerable groups that will ease pressure on many householders in Limerick.
“As a Labour Party representative, I am pleased that my party fought hard to ensure that the standing charge, ability-to-pay and adequate metering were taken into consideration when the final pricing structure was being decided.
“From the outset, we said that we had to get this issue right and we were not prepared to agree a package that did not adequately address the impact these charges will have on working families and certain vulnerable groups,” she explained.
“Furthermore, there will now be an accelerated metering programme, providing for approximately 1.1 million meters to be installed by mid-2016, following our concerns that metering wasn’t happening fast enough. Meanwhile, every home will qualify for a ‘free first fix scheme’, providing each household with a free fix of the first leak on a water supply pipe. This is a positive development,” she declared.
There was no comment from Irish Water at the time of going to press.
