This article is about the original Water Charges from 2015.
You can find the latest information about Water Charges Here
Irish Water began sending out their first quarterly water bills to households in April 2015.
The first Irish Water Bills were for the period Jan 1st 2015 to March 31st 2015. The bills were gradually sent out over several weeks – and some people probably didn’t get their first bill until sometime in June .
For non metered homes the quarterly water charge will be :
Single Adult Households : €40 (€20 for supply and €20 for wastewater)
Households with more than 1 adult : €65 ( €32.50 each for supply and wastewater)
Households that have informed Irish Water that they only use one service (water supply or sewage) will be charged the half rate. ( €20 or €32.50)
If householders haven’t responded to Irish Water to let them know which services they use and how many adults there are in the house – then the default charge will be €65 a quarter. This default charge applies to metered homes too.
The exact amount on the quarterly bills will vary slightly because the water charges are calculated on a daily basis. For example – the first bill will be for 90 days and so the maximum charge will be €64.10 . The second bill will cover April to June and will be for 91 days – so the maximum charge for that period will be €64.82. The final bills for 2015 will both be for 92 days and will be a maximum of €65.54. (An annual total of €260)
For homes with meters – the quarterly water charges will be capped at (i.e not exceed ) €65 for households with more than 1 adult , and they will be capped at €40 a quarter for single adult households.
It may be possible to get a metered bill that is lower than these capped charges if you are a household with fairly low water usage . But – the majority of households will end up paying the maximum charge of either €65 or €40. See our calculations here .
More figures on metered charges for families with chidren Here
Empty Properties or Second Homes :
If an empty property is unmetered the charge will €31.25 per quarter for both water supply and wastewater services and €15.62 a quarter for a single service.
If the empty property is metered the minimum charge will be €31.25 per quarter for both water supply and wastewater services and €15.62 a quarter for a single service. The maximum charge will be €260 per year for both services and €130 per year for a single service. (€65 or €32.50 a quarter)
Meter Readings : If your home is metered – the meter reading from midnight on the last day of each quarter will be automatically stored in the meter’s memory . These meter readings will be picked up by “drive by” meter readers sometime during April , May or even June. There are curently about 700,000 meters around the country that will need to be read – and even using drive by readers that could take several weeks . More information here about Irish Water Meter Readings
Who Will Get a Water Bill ?
It is unlikely you will get a water bill if you never received a registration form from Irish Water or you haven’t yet contacted them to register online or over the phone. It appears there could be many thousands of homes that Irish Water don’t know about (yet).
If you got one of the Irish Water forms or if you registered online – you will be getting a water bill.
Even if you didn’t respond to the form – you will still get a bill , but because Irish Water don’t know anything about your household or water supply or wasterwater treatment – they will bill you for the maximum of €65 a quarter.