Water Charges to be Even More Expensive Than Feared
Tuesday, July 1st, 2014
In a piece of news that is bound to engage people across Ireland, it has emerged that the daily water allowance, which was widely bandied about by Irish politicians in the run up to the recent elections (both local and European), will, in fact, be significantly less than the quoted 104 litres (which works out as being 380,000 litres per year) when the water charges come into effect this October.
Costs of Water Charges
What is particularly irksome about this latest development is that Irish Water has been vague, to say the least, as to what the new allowance actually is. When pressed, the only answer that the water meter installing company was wiling to give out was that their research had suggested that Irish children (ie: anyone aged 17 or under – approximately one million citizens) use considerably less water than they had anticipated. However, they did not go into any great detail as to how much the difference was. The source of Irish Water’s data is said to be the readings that they have made based on the water meters which they have installed around the country already. Many have criticised Irish Water’s ‘research’ and conclusions, maintaining that they are jumping the gun and using small sample sizes (1,650 households were measured) over a very short period of time in order to unfairly justify increasing their prices. Irish Water maintains that their calculations contain only a 3% margin of error.
The first metered water bills are due to hit Irish households in January 2014 at an annual cost of €240 per anum once the water meters have been in place for a full year (see: The Actual Cost of Water Charges).
“The main purpose of the research is to ensure that the assessed tariff is a close proxy to the metered tariff.
This data is currently being analysed and will ensure that the Government direction is implemented as intended,”
– Irish Water statement
Irish Water is scheduled to submit its new Water Charges Plan (which is based on their own recent findings) to the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) tomorrow (Wednesday, July 2nd, 2014) with the CER to publish said data soon after. Critics of Irish Water and their plans have angrily questioned why such research, which directly and financially effects all the citizens of Ireland, could not have been carried out by a team of independent researchers with no vested interest in the matter. The Zeitgeist of the situation seems to be of the opinion that any research on the matter conducted by Irish Water themselves could easily be cherry picked in order to help Irish Water maximise their profits at the expense of the Irish taxpayer.
Predictably, big name politicians (who incidentally have big wages and are unlikely to feel the pinch of Irish Water’s new price plan) have all come out in defense of Irish Water’s actions in recent times, with Environment Minister Phil Hogan being the most vocal of the scheme’s defenders. In May, both he and An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny both individually claimed that water will be “effectively” free to children. The consistent use of the word ‘effectively’ had caused many to take their claims with a hefty and cynical lump of salt at the time. Irish Water’s latest moving of the goalposts would imply that the cynics among us were right not to take their words at face value.
Hogan had also claimed at the time that there would be no compulsory standing charge for water usage. It would appear though, that the plan was originally to have had such a charge of €50 but this was scrapped due to public outrage and lobbying.
It would appear that no one (in the standard bill paying public at least) knows exactly what Irish Water truly has in store for us in terms of metered water charges. We should have a better idea about them by tomorrow when CER announces their findings. If there is one thing that we can be certain of, it is that the news will not be good.
[Source:
Irish Independent]
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