Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
WATER CHARGES COULD still be a thorn in Fine Gael’s side when the notice of “excessive usage” for water are posted out to households this summer.
It’s been a long road for the party, who despite having thousands on the street, appeared to be determined to press on with their water charges regime. After three long years of protests and climb-downs, last year the government began refunding water charges.
In total, the government handed back over €173 million in refunds, and it cost around €5 million in admin costs to do so.
Despite getting a hammering over the scheme, the party could be in for a bit more if the next phase of charges does not go off without a hitch.
This week, the Cabinet approved the introduction of excessive charges for households.
The threshold for excessive use is set at 1.7 times the average household use, with the average consumption per person determined to be 133 litres per day.
While the original water charges regime was scrapped, the government moved to ensure there was some sort of penalty for those that use “too much” water. At the time, parties such as Sinn Féin and People Before Profit celebrated the government’s defeat on the issue – but they noted that it wasn’t over.
This week the government said those that use an excessive amount of water will get their first warning notices from June this year.
However, no charges will be levied until next year – those bills won’t arrive until 2020.
So, what are the rules?
The government outlines that excess usage is defined as 1.7 times the average household water usage.
Those that received a notice this June that they are using above the designated amount of water will have six months to correct their water usage pattern. A plan called the ‘First Fix Free’ scheme will also be available, which will allow people get any leaks fixed, so as to prevent any excessive usage charges.
Households that continue to use water excessively for the six month period after receiving a notice would be billed on an annual basis, with the first bills planned to issue in late 2020.
Additional water usage allowances are available for households with four occupants and over, and for those with medical grounds.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has admitted himself that the handling of the water charges debacle was a mess – but if this government is not careful, it could be walking right into another.
There are a number of problems that might arise.
Advertisement
Households
First, the charge is based per household, not per person. This means that in one house, there might be two people living there, while next door, there could be four people. Both houses have the same allowance. (Note above – households with more than four people will get additional allowances).
Paul Murphy TD, a long-time critic of water charges, said this week:
Because of how the usage of an average household is calculated, four-person households will be hit particularly hard. A four-person household will have exactly the same allowance as a one-person household.
Water meters
Secondly, there’s the issue of water meters.
Water metering was a key component to the last regime, with the first water charges protests taking place in 2014 during installations of the metres in housing estates around the country.
However, as the water charges movement gained ground, the mass installation slowed down. Rather than having a water metre in every home, which was the aim, only 884,000 have been installed.
Under the new scheme, some households will have metres to measure their water usage, while others will not.
The report by the Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Domestic Water Services recommended that a “high priority” be placed on the investment in district water metering.
However, Irish Water told TheJournal.ie:
District meters are completely different to domestic meters. District Meters are used to measure the amount of water supplied to a region or area of a water supply network, known as District Metered Areas (DMA).
Rural areas might have 50 premises in a DMA whereas towns and cities tends to have an average of 1,000 to 1,500 premises in a DMA. District meters were put in place by the local authorities before Irish Water was established. There are approximately 4,400 DMAs countrywide.
What is the average consumption of water?
Thirdly, there is the definition of the average consumption levels.
Fine Gael TDs have been out in force this week repeating that the allowance is “generous” and that only those the use a lot of water will be facing charges. Those that use the ‘normal’ amount should get no bills, they state.
The Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) estimated that the average household contained 2.6 people, which means the average (mean) consumption per person was around 133 litres per day.
Delving deep into the figures, TheJournal.ie’sFactfind at the time of the excessive water use scheme found that there are many different ways the figures might pan out, not least because some households will have leaks and others may not.
It found, the percentage of households that could be liable for charged range from either 7% to a high of over 20%.
If the government is correct and they have been generous with the allowance, and the majority of people will not face a fine, then Fine Gael will have nothing to worry about.
If households use more than is predicted, or leaks across the network result in high bills landing through the doors of hard-pressed families in 2020, they’ll have another headache on their hands.
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
129 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
Ireland needs 23 beds for eating disorders - but seven years on, there's still no sign of them
Paul O'Donoghue
9 hrs ago
10.0k
37
Catholic Church
Vatican says Pope Francis 'rested well all night' in hospital, after 'slight improvement' in condition
Updated
1 hr ago
4.5k
8
Murder Investigation
American mother drops newborn to death from Paris hotel window
19 hrs ago
51.1k
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 152 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 104 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 136 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 106 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 78 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 77 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 37 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 33 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 127 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 60 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 75 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 82 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 38 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 43 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 25 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 86 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 96 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 68 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 50 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 84 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 64 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say