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IT’S A COMPLICATED ROAD to water charge refunds. Here’s why.
Earlier this week, it was reported that refunds will be approved through an online application process, where those who are entitled to a refund will apply for it online.
Although it’s been decided that those who paid through direct debit – which represents around 20% of all payment methods used – it’s yet to be decided how all other payments will be refunded, which won’t be an easy task.
Here’s a quick reminder of how many customers there are and how much they paid:
Since charges were introduced in January 2015, the charges have been paid through a mixture of cheques, pay points, and credit cards, with some people choosing a variety of payments for each time they paid a charge.
The government will most likely choose one of these to return the charges, based on speed and the simplicity of the process; water charges have been promised to be repaid by the autumn of this year, remember.
Another complication for the process will be the change of addresses. Irish Water insist that many people would have registered their new address with them before now; but many citizens have disassociated themselves from the water utility, so there very well could be people who haven’t notified Irish Water of a change of address.
And for those that haven’t registered a change of address (they also might not have thought it necessary since the water charges were scrapped) this could cause confusion.
For example, if the payment method chosen is cheques, that could be sent to the right household, but the wrong owner.
(If you haven’t, you can get in touch with them here).
A third obstacle, which is linked to the political turmoil attached to this, is the legislation that will allow Irish Water to begin refunding people. Until that’s passed through and approved by the Oireachtas, Irish Water can’t begin the background work into the refund process.
Now, the introduction of the water bill to the houses of the Oireachtas has been delayed until the end of the summer recess (or TDs summer holidays).
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, the Department of Housing, and Local Government, which oversees Irish Water, said:
Legislation is currently being prepared to give effect to the recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services.
Details of the mechanics and the administrative issues around providing refunds to customers will be developed over the coming period.
Irish Water says that once the payment method is chosen, staff will be trained on how to carry out those payments.
“An operation on this scale requires a period of time to plan it properly, get our systems ready and provide any staff training needed.
It maintains that its “primary concern is that the payment of refunds is as straightforward as possible from a customer point of view”.
We are now putting a team in place to begin this work and we will communicate directly with customers advising them what they need to do to ensure their refund is paid correctly as soon as the legislation is passed and we get a clear policy decision from government.
Although it was thought that the water conservation grant of €100 would be deducted from the water charge refunds, EU rules will most likely block the government from claiming that back, and mean that customers who have applied for it will have received an accumulated €19 million.
It’s still not known where the additional funds will be found to fund the water charges refunds; it’s been suggested that the Department of Finance will look for underpayments in various departments to make up for the total costs.
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Was it not the same financial institutions who provided their expertise to most of the collapsed banks and developers .
Good to see some have profited out of the misery inflicted on the Irish citizen…….
@Kerry Blake: yeah, we’re all crippled with austerity, crows picking out our eyes, slung on the dung heap to rot in the blazing sun. beaten to a pulp by the vicious fascist government and their brutal political police. we should call the UN to bring in a peacekeeping force to protect us from the people we elect.
Funnily enough a lot of these names popped up during the crash as well.
Wasn’t it Ernst & Young who gave Anglo Irish Bank a clean bill of health on the eve of the collapse while noow we know that the final cost of the bailout will be close to €40 billion. and KPMG, who audited Irish Nationwide Building Society and reported that the bank had €300 million profits and had set aside €500m for bad debts and the bank ended up having to be bailed out to the tune of €2.6 billion.
When all is said and done Ireland is a stinking cesspit of a country and the further you climb the more you smell.
@Mark DeFriest: In fairness to Ernst & Young and KPMG, they can only audit what they are given, if someone is lying to them about figures they are given, they don’t know the true story. The Central Bank are the regulatory body and have the power to really and truly audit a bank or company, not just asking but demanding, along with checking figures themselves. They should have been doing it, the ultimate failure rests with the Central Bank, these guy where asleep at the wheel.
@Mark DeFriest: Also, I don’t understand myself why NAMA is outsourcing this to other companies, isn’t that the point of NAMA as a bad bank to keep all this stuff in house?
I feel nothing was learned from the crash to be honest, and we will be reading about NAMA 2.0 in about 2 years time.
@OnTheOutside: an independent receiver must be appointed where a company is insolvent. Needs to determine who is owed what, who has claim over what assets etc…
@OnTheOutside:
‘Audit what they are given’
They missed a large black hole there. In the States there’s a banking rule book. Break a rule and you end up in leg irons on the way to San Quentin. In Ireland there’s no rule book, banks make it up as they go along. Ernst and Young admitted during the banking inquiry that although they knew a tsunami of bad debt was about to engulf Anglo Irish Bank under Irish banking law they did not have to take that ominous fact into consideration when clearing the bank. Bit like selling a house while the wrecking ball is pulling into the yard.
@Fake Avast:
Don’t worry about me Constantin.
@OnTheOutside: agreed. If you only give half the ingredients, you cant complain if you end up with bad pancakes instead of a fine patisserie
@eimear, half the ingredients just give half the amount but the taste should be the same.
@Markonline:
:-)
100 odd million for 32 billion of sales. 0.00312 percent. Literally a drop in the ocean. Badly presented article as usual from the journal.
@Joseph Bloggs: €2 m per year is also a drop in the ocean.
Maybe the government can round up a few of these drops if they are so easy to come by and pay down the debt.
Kerching for the well in…
Its a small country with a small circle of friends at the top who plot to screw the rest of us. They are helped by what ever government is in power at the time, usually FF/FG. Time for a change. Vote these basta$rds out at the next GE and start holding the rest accountable for their actions.
NAMA is the biggest scam to ever hit this country , it is elitism at its finest . It’s jobs for the boys and a wink and nod culture among developers and politicians . Who wouldn’t want to be in NAMA when you can borrow money from them at 6% interest rate as opposed to borrowing from a banking institution at a rate of 12% to 15% interest rate .
They were banging on the door of NAMA and couldn’t get in quick enough .
I hate NAMA, the more stories I hear about what they have done that don’t make the news then the more I get annoyed, need some committee to ask questions about what they do?
Well done
Nama should be investigated from start to finish by a company from outside of Ire I don’t trust them and never have and after the dealings in the 6 counties that finished me.
The amounts of cranes and work getting done in Dublin City centre area.
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