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THE ENERGY REGULATOR has denied saying Irish Water should not proceed with metering.
Appearing before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services, the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) said it did not “boldly state water metering should be abandoned” in its submission.
As of December, Minister Simon Coveney said the cost of putting close to 880,000 meters in the ground has cost the state €465 million.
It’s understood in their submission to the committee, CER raised concerns about the cost of completing the water metering programme.
“We did not say we should abandon,” said Commissioner of the CER Paul McGowan.
He clarified that what the CER said was that “at this time” to process with another roll out of metering when the expert commission had stated that the majority of people should not pay water charges should be considered.
Water meters
“At this time there are other priorities for capital investment,” said McGowan.
We could back and look at when we might return to metering.
We did not boldly state water metering should be abandoned.
We said at this time.
He agreed when put to him that he meant “parking” the water metering project might be favourable for now.
McGowan said the decision to continue with the water metering project remains with government.
He said the continuation of the water metering programme is a “significant capital programme” – and if it were to continue it would require additional capital or capital would have to be diverted from other projects to bring in metering.
Fine Gael’s Kate O’Connell asked the commissioner why the regulator felt it was part of their role to comment on the metering programme, stating that 75% of the project is “pretty much is finished”.
Upon making this comment there were sniggers heard from a member of the committee, for which O’Connell said she was entitled to a “bit of respect” when talking.
A matter of the regulator
Commissioner of the CER Paul McGowan said metering is a regulatory matter and forms part of utility regulation in number of different regimes.
He stated the submission made to the committee was based on the questions put to the CER before their appearance today.
He noted that the first phase of water meter installation was a government decision.
McGowan said the next phase of installations, which could involve the roll out of meters in apartment blocks, for instance, was always going to be something the regulator looked at in terms of the cost efficiency.
The committee was told the installation of meters will end, for now, on 31 January.
When outlining Irish Water’s funding requirements, the committee was told that if no customers paid their water charges in 2017, the company would need €232 million from the state to make up the shortfall.
When outlining its funding from the period from 2014-2016, Irish Water received €3.2 billion – with €2.2 billion coming from revenue, €0.7 billion from state equity and €0.8 billion on external borrowings.
Projecting from this year to 2021, Irish Water said it is looking for €8 billion, with €5 billion from the state, €1 billion from equity and state borrowings increased to €2 billion
Representatives from Irish Water told the committee that it is critical there is long-term strategic planning, stating that there was a requirement for certainty of funding on a basis of five years.
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Alot he fking knows…theyre on another planet the lot of them..whats the alternative to oil, gas or coal without extortionate expenses to fit solar or the next energy source..they’ve jumped the gun with this one and offered no incentive to switch to cleaner energy sources…and yes I know there are grants in place but its not enough…if they want to make an impression, then don’t take money off people to justify it saving the planet.. Build a proper program outlining the options for people, a cost effective solution instead of take take take.
@Craig Clancy: People simply cannot afford grants, costs to much to upgrade systems. Initial outlaw is to much,
@Craig Clancy: Grants are part of the give. Green energy such as wind is subsidised. What’s your great plan to reduce pollution without hitting people’s pockets?
@Dave Barrett: I would love to go solar or any other viable resource but as you pointed out it’s too expensive even with the grant..how much was it for all those water meters that are due to need upgrading soon? Surely they could of put that money towards a nationwide energy campaign..biggest tax take last year and still the roads are in $hite, homelessness is rampant still, hospitals over run and understaffed but yet they still suck us dry of every extra cent we try use to survive…its going to hit a boiling point soon and some one will take matters in to their own hands.
@Mickety Dee: how about stop taking more and more money off people and give them a chance to actually switch over or upgrade..they ran this way too quick and gave no viable plan for anyone, absolutely no incentive to switch over..literally said here are your options off you go now hurry before we start taking just that little squeeze more off you…how is it our fault that they’re are not other things in place…start by fixing the appalling public transport, focus more on helping people change over to solar rather than punish them for not having it, work with the people..thats the problem they are so detached from reality its frightening.
@Craig Clancy: Irish people lack back bone. Yellow vests needed.
@Craig Clancy: need to take vat off renewables!
@Aidan Conway: alot more than take the vat off.
@Dave Barrett: well anyone who protests is called an extremist or anti vaxer or a crazy person by the media, or protesting is made illegal like the truckers one in Canada. Not much the normal person can do anymore to oppose anything.
The main reason for cost of living rises is we dont have a regulator to question why everything is on the rise
Oh wait a minute we do have a regulator .
He must have fallen asleep like Eamonn and everything went up when his eyes were closed.
@Stephen Carslake: That’s not the reason for increases. Read the media of any country in the world and you’ll see that.
The Irish energy regulator does not influence prices in the US, UK, Germany, Spain, Turkey, France, Italy etc etc
Our energy regulator may make dubious calls but they are not the sole reason for the price increases.
@Lee King Buckett: they’re allowing energy companies raise standing charges, which are nothing to do with global energy supplies. The bill increases can be excused for global rises, but there’s no reason for raising standing charges other than opportunistic greed which is where the regulator should step in .. but doesn’t!
@Rob Gale: Agreed but as per the original comment that’s not ‘the main reason’ for price increases.
The main reason is a global energy crisis, the standing charge increase is gouging but not major.
@Lee King Buckett: I’m not sure about the gas suppliers, but:
ESB Networks are managing/maintaining the whole electricity infrastructure and (most/a lot of) the production.
I would guess, that’s covered with the standing charges, or at least the major chunk of it? IF they increased the charges to Energia, Airtricity, or whoever, they will only pass the charges on to the customer, I guess?
You have to laugh that the Green Party under Eamonn Ryan seemingly sacrificed all of their principles in government on areas like greyhound racing, hare coursing, neutrality, direct provision etc in exchange for this carbon tax that would ultimately become redundant through global events and fudged away from making a difference.
Brilliant stuff Green TDs, you’ve achieved nothing in government other than providing the necessary numbers for FF & FG to implement their policies. Bravo.
This is literally bizzare, as in really really bizzare, one of the main exporters of oil/gas IE Russia is all but closing its supply to Europe, causing massive price increases across the board. I am no expert here at all, but Eamonn do you think I would be paying over the odds if I had an alterative way to get said energy? There is no alteratives even remotely ready to take over. Even if I installed a 10kW solar system with battery, it still needs subbing from the grid, which is again, gas powered for the most part. Also, in saying that, I am just talking about household energy useage. I have no idea about farms, but what I do know is all that farm machinary is fuel based, what alternatives have been given to farmers, that’s just one industry. Also, yet again, moving everything to electric based is putting massive pressure on the national grid, which again is still massively gas based on the back end and is nearly keeling over with 15/20 odd data centres in the mix and Eamonn and co think this same grid is ready to handle the entire country going fully electric. Seriously, what plannet is this lad on.
@Dave.: Also, I just want to add. Seriously, when are the Irish people actually going to get up and march on the Dail, this is not right. How can it be, as one poster pointed out, fuel prices have increased so much that its has actually bettered any increase the Carbon Tax would yeild, yet goverment still continue to push for more increases. Are we really as a nation going to sit down and take this no problem?
@Dave.: Russia has not reduced gas or oil supplies to Europe at all. Ireland gets its gas from Scotland.
The war in Ukraine has resulted in speculative increases in oil but gas has reduced in price in the last 5 weeks. The causes of energy price spikes predate the war in Ukraine.
Other than that, you’re correct about the lack of alternatives and the fact that a carbon tax won’t reduce usage at all.
They will put the Tax on To Keep Ryan on Board and then give it Back some other Way What Load of Bollicks
The whole point of a carbon tax is to disincentivise (or in our case more likely to avoid EU fines). For gas and oil, the price has already risen high enough to disincentivise. Adding any more money is just making poor people poorer.
Also, how can Irish people be disincentivised to use a car when we have the worst public transport infrastructure in Western Europe? We have very few safe bike lanes (and those that we have abruptly end for no reason). Even in Dublin.
Its just a load of virtue signalling and kicking the can down the road. Like the paper straws, none of this is going to make any sort of meaningful difference. What we need is major investments in renewables, investment in our public transport and cycling infrastructure, and much more. Not a bunch of new taxes.
@Tomo: Avoid EU fines ??? This State pay the EU fines every year because they are charging the Irish motorists VRT which is outlawed by the EU .. so they know exactly what they are doing.. Instead of taxing the public Carbon Tax, they should be heavily investing in the ESB to help them build multiple wind farms…and not giving out subsidies to private companies
Where are all the FF/FG/GP middle leg huggers today? Very quiet…surely it’s hitting home to them on the failure of their parties?
Az if things were not expensive enough, soon enough a car owner wont be able to afforx to fuel a car pay for home heating.surely the government can off put this raise.
The easiest way to offset the burden of the tax is not to introduce it due to the current circumstances. But they will go on and on with all kinds of waffle just to keep the Greens on board. Personally I have lost all faith in FF and FG.
I wonder what the US multinationals are paying for electricity for all the data centers that are gobbling up loads of out electricity. I’d bet they pay seriously less that the average person. All new data centers and other non essential type IT should be paused until this is under control. Our citizens can’t afford food or electricity but we have many times redundancy in our data storage incase of a few mins outage on watching netflix. Great priorities we have in the 21st century.
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