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ALMOST 80,000 HOUSEHOLDS have so far been fitted with water meters as water charges are set to commence from October.
Over 1 million household connections have also now surveyed by authorities, work that is required ahead of the installation of meters.
Households are set to receive their first bills in January 2015.
Irish Water yesterday took responsibility for the the delivery water and wastewater services to homes and businesses with the transfer of services to occur over a phased basis.
Local authorities will still however provide certain services on behalf of Irish Water through for a period of 12 years.
This ongoing work of local authorites was acknowledged by Environment Minister Phil Hogan as he welcomed the official commencement of Irish Water:
Local authorities have provided water and wastewater services for over 100 years, and have done so with great dedication. I want to acknowledge this, and also their future role in providing services on behalf of Irish Water through service level agreements.
Irish Water acts as a subsidiary of Bord Gáis Éireann with shares in the company also allocated to the minister, something the Government says was included to ensure that Irish Water remains in public ownership.
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I already pay for my water through a group water scheme. Its always as good as bottled water so I don’t mind paying for it. What I would mind paying for would be the “piss” that ming Flanagan showed the country in the Dail a few weeks back.
Flanagan actually put forward a great argument for water charges by his little panto performance the other week in the Dail…. Chronic underfunding even during the ‘boom’ years has led to water infrastructure not fit for purpose leading to less than desirable water quality. Also water is hugely expensive to treat and distribute, why shouldn’t citizens pay for this service.
I have no problem paying for a service as long as I get it. We all know very well that money was allocated to local authorities from prsi and was never spent where it was supposed to be. This is all just a smoke screen. They say that by charging they will be able to provide a better service in the same way they say that getting more road tax will improve roads. My bollix! The roads are in bits all over the country and the half decent ones are tolled. The new M1 extension is a disgrace as it holds more surface water than any road I have ever driven on around the country and it’s just finished. What’s the reason? Again it’s no secret, we owe every penny in the country to Europe and it makes no difference where it comes in from it will be shipped off into the black hole of debt that our ministers created for our future.
The water I get is unusable and I have had to add a treatment unit to my supply as well as add kilos of salt to it every month. Until they sort out the supply I will be deducting this from the bills before any payments will be made. I suggest others do the same.
We already do.
We already pay for it in our taxes you fool.
Correct Adam !! This like the property tax is nothing more than paying the gambling debts of the rich and banksters .. Nothing more no matter what way they try to paint it
The piss most of us get from our taps…..count yourself one of the few lucky ones who actually get decent water.
Well said. It costs me and my wife 200 a year to soften our water and service this unit and now they want to add further cost to my family
Do not pay your water bills iv looked into it they cannot cut you off from water it’s against human rights !!! They can cut off anything but water :) so let them shove there bills
Freeloader…
Can just turn the pressure down.
Good man Keith, I never had any intentions of paying on the double for my water anyway! Let the fools who will pay, pay! Brain dead the lot of them.
Where did I hear that before! The cost of a pressure regulator would almost be almost the same as a meter, and then there’s the extra cost to fit it. Ya, right!
What do you mean by ” freeloader”? We already pay for our water.
Thats true keith. However you can be brought to court by the water company for not paying it so it’ll be interesting to see the outcomes thete
Yeah like people were brought to court for the property tax….
Who’s a free loader you fool
Since I replied to your comment Keith you should assume I was speaking about you.
Sinead – I didn’t pay this extra tax they call the LPT, revenue know I haven’t and won’t. I haven’t been asked to appear in court. Join attack the tax people, so far so good!
I don’t pay me bin taxes because I am a hero. And I wouldn’t of payed the house tax only for them dirt birds took it out me wage.
Ask me boll..ox
Your answer Keith has confirmed everything I need to know about you. Cheers
Ha ha your a good troll il give ye that stick your proper name up and a pic
You never got water free it was part of your tax arrangements with the government ,it’s just another tax
Just don’t pay they cannot legally stop your water supply it’s a human right.
Written where?
The government recently agreed and acknowledged that if a bill is not paid that they cant turn off the water. However, they said instead you will be brought to court and have a judgement made against you
How can the Gov legally sell the water of mother Eire as she gives it free daily.?
I have a well and a pump so you can f off
Tough on the installers.
Just doing a job they were contracted to do, while Rent-A-Mob look on.
Ve ver just obeying ze orders ja?
Absolutely disgrace this water meter debacle. And what happens FG support is up and still has the biggest support what a bunch of idiots we have as voters.
FG support is not up that’s just propaganda government supporting groups to get you thinking there doing a great job running the country when they’ve destroyed it for the sake if the rich and bankster buddies
I agree, go out and pick a 1000 Irish people at random from every part of Ireland and the percentage of hatred for this Banking Dictatorship posing as our government would be up around 90%. These polls are part of the public deception carried out daily by Kenny and RTE and other Media with vested interests . The locations and times are hand picked, Of course it will be nigh impossible to get any media outlet to investigate these polls and even more unlikely that the finding would ever reach the public.
We have to face the fact that the Ireland we live in is now neither a Republic or a real democracy thanks to Enda and his party of personal greed and treason.
O the joys, a year ago the local council got pissed off having to jump my boundary fence to check my meter (on an old group water scheme) along came a JCB, pick up truck, 8 men to move the meter 2 feet. It only took them 7 hours to carry out this arduous task, just think of the man hours saved if they had of waited. Now lets see these new f&$ kers climb my heightened boundary wall seeking payment when this outrageous charge kicks in.
Dirt birds
Why not look at installing Carbon Monoxide alarms and saving a few lives.
They cost a tenner, people can purchase them at leisure…. And it has nothing to do with water.
Absolute disgrace that british companies are subcontracted by gmc sierra to install the metres.only in ireland.rumour has mr o brien owns irish water as he privatly funded the installation of metres.probably owns gmc too.gang of s$&t heads
How stupid are you? Firstly, name the Irish companies that tendered for this? Give the reason why they did not get the work? Secondly, how the hell does O’Brien own Irish Water? Facts please you tulip…and stop spoofing…
Learn how to spell your name for a start you absolute moron.there only listed on the freedom of information act since yesterday and metre installation started months ago.bleedin eejit.talking shite should be your new name
You beat all, you have not answered one of my questions you spoofer…what is wrong with you that you can’t? You speak bull…that is why….give it up
Provision of water will remain the responsibility of local authorities for 12 years. Irish water is a tax collection service, maybe the author of this article could write about this?
I wouldn’t mind paying the water charges if the quality of water was even half decent but as it stands I don’t drink the water at home as it smells and tastes funny.Only thing it’s used for is breaking kettles and washing machines and baths.
Atleast they could do was improve it so I’m getting a decent useable service for my charges.
I have asked this q many times – when will there be a return, 500+m in – how much return? Does anyone have the overall balance sheet numbers? Where is the money coming from? Is Irish Water borrowing it, at what rate of interest?
Just vandalise it so it won’t work
Spoken like a true Celtic fan.
spoken like a true government ass kisser birch or is it enda’s b*tch
Cheer up mr grumpy.
Not that I’m a huge fan of Celtic or football but actually their supporters are generally very well behaved, won awards and compliments from continental clubs for years.
Like the Dutch did with speed cameras
People should be complaining, especially out of work plumbers,installers down from north doing the work, where are the great plumbers unions now…..still sucking on the ham and turkey from last year…..chat with the installers and hear them say its great you have no plumbers out of work down here….
Civil disobedience is what’s required here. We have taken way to much from this political class of nitwits. A bag of cement will sort out any meter reading problem
Limerick cc put in mine four weeks ago after blocking off the entrance toy house for four days gave no notice at doing it
Dird birds
Where only the rivers run free
@Ronan Duffy, is thier any figures available explaining how much water can be used without being charged for it.
Based on UK system, It’s expected an allowance of 20 litres per resident per day. So family of 5, 100 litres a day. The main cost will be the rental of the underground water meter. If you remain under the allowance a minimum charge will still apply
Fiona,thanks for the reply, I am installing my own water harvesting system into my property for car washing,window cleaning,garden and toilets so that will cut down on my family’s usage significantly,so 100 litres per day should do.
the thing that really pisses me off is that there is going to be a ‘penalty’ for people who do not use their quota that just shows taht this is purely a commercial venture so they can f off with their charges.
If they had a scheme for Water Meter Installations, where they were fitted by out of work plumbers (proven out of work for say 6-12months) or Irish plumbers who had to leave Ireland due to being unemployed before they left, it would be some boost. I’d nearly be able to move home from Australia! Wishful thinking I know, but it would be a fantastic way of doing it.
And send them back off to OZ when the work is complete is it? Mother of God…the suggestions on this post says enough about the commenters
Sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you buddy. Have to call a spade a spade though.
with a name like talkingsense most of the times u sound like a troll full of sh*t
the water metre for my house is some 200 metres up the road,, we were having work done on the house a couple of yrs back abnd needed to shut off the supply, the plumber went up the road to the metre and turned it off , 3 hours later we still had running water , we eventuall installed a new stop valve outside the back door of the house, so as we could turn off the water if nessecery. a few weeks later the local authority, came along the road and dug up all the old meters and replaced them with new ones (these have since had to be removed and replaced as they were not compatable with the new computerised system) when the guys from irish water came round to check on the meteres he asked me where our metre was, i told him ,”up the road about 200 metres” he went off with his water finder ,came back an hour later and asked if our water had gone off, “no it hasn’t ” i replied, well it should have done says he, end of the day it turns out that our supply can’t be found, result if they cant find it they cany put a metre on it, hence they cant charge you for it either. to ‘trace’ out supply pipe they would have to dig up oveer 150 metres of a local sports clubs private grounds, as the pipe is ” somewhere under that lot “. good luck in finding it ,said i.
Lets face the facts when this government was elected the figures showed that we were spending €12000 annually for every man woman and child in this country while we were only raising €8000 in taxes and charges that’s before we pay for legacy debt and bank refinancing so those who say we already paid for water and everything else are only two thirds right hence the cuts and increased charges so that we all pay our way
Actually after this year the primary deficit will be very small (billion or so).
The deficit you refer to IS the monies paid as interest on national debt acquired for us under FF.
What they should have done was start to fix the current water supply before putting in the water meters. Maybe making the water in all areas drinkable..? I know, I know, such a ridiculous concept. It’d take a lot of time and money (and no, I don’t know where’d they get the money from) but sure it’s a basic thing that should have been sorted out long ago. Then when everyone is happy (apart from the people against fluoride obv) they can go back and install the water meters. Or they could install em while sorting out the water, whatever. Most people wouldn’t mind paying for something they are now getting – decent drinking water. Surely that would make more sense?
I had some waste water coming out if me this morning!
I think you mean you’re a waste of water, Scoby
Surely water sunlight and air should be free? A basic human right especially in a country where it rains so much. And so if I put a barrel in my garden to catch rainwater I’m breaking the law?
It’s not a finite resource
And space and air
Susannah by your reasoning we should help our selves to ballygowen in Tesco too, water is free but clean water pumped into your house costs money.
I
Susannah by your reasoning we should help our selves to ballygowen in Tesco too, water is free but clean water pumped into your house costs money.
The dirty rotten basterds may their children forgive them
Depends what you mean by clean with fluoride added ? I think I’d rather take my chances We don’t need treated water for showers washing machines swimming pools or car wash facilities.
Scoby darling…Congratulations ;);)
Yes you are, I believe I read somewhere it’s illegal to harvest rainwater!
How come people keep saying they wouldn’t mind paying for water if it was clean and drinkable, sher we are and have always been paying for water through our taxation system. Why pay twice? And why would we even consider paying when it’s poisoned with fluoride and other chemicals, are we so thick and stupid, sad thing is, we probably are……
just copying the British system in every way.
What is wrong with irish people we pay over the top for our taxes and living and irish people sell each other out by not fighting these snaky stealth taxes and putting our money into the hands of the rich and out of our kids and then tell me buy irish what a croc. 70 euro reduced from my pay this morning for tax. I have 20 for groceries for two weeks and 20 for petrol and no cash left that’s it.
So I’m ashamed to live here in this country same people are making the money that robbed us already and we let them.
I can not wait till they install my water meter. We are all a bunch of compliant docile thick paddies. How much does it cost to put fluoride in our water supply, Fluoride is banned in many countries around the world because its harmless!!!!!
Wonder if the government will pay people to rat on their neighbours. Would be a brilliant scheme.
The guys installing the meters are making a right mess of our roads. They’ll be back in a year or two to repair the damage that they caused.
Unfortunately the meters are going in and no matter what , charges will start in 2015. What we would like to see is clarification on how the first fix will work? We are specialists in domestic water supply and know that finding water leaks in small domestic pipework is very difficult and can cost the customer more. We always recommend to have the pipe relayed and this reduces the risk of future leaks and save money on your water bills.
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