As we mentioned last week – John Mullins, chief executive of Bord Gáis, which is in charge of Irish Water, said it could take 2½ to three years to fully install meters in the 1.05 million eligible homes.
Bord Gais – the company which is in charge of Irish Water, has now confirmed that just over 75 per cent of eligible homes are now expected to have their meters installed before the end of 2015 – but it will be the end of 2016 before all qualifying homes have meters installed .
Installation of water meters is due to begin in July 2013 and water charging is due to begin in 2014 – but it looks like only 160,000 meters will have been installed by then.
The proposed rates of water charges are due to be published in July 2013 by the Commission for Energy Regulation.
It is still not clear how homes that won’t have meters installed in time will be charged while they wait for a meter. It is likely that an “assessed charge” will be put in place based on the size of the house and number of people living there . But this will me a massive exercise in itself – to confirm household sizes.
A pilot survey to establish the number and location of stopcocks in three local authority areas, Fingal, Kerry and Wexford, was supposed to due to begin this month but it is now not expected to begin until at least the middle of November.
Bord Gáis is tendering in the “coming weeks” for water meters and intends to have selected a meter for national use by early 2013.
The boundary boxes, which will be fitted into the ground to hold the meters, are being procured separately by the Department of the Environment. It appears that the meters and the boundary boxes will be fitted separately – meaning two visits maybe even by two different contractors.
Bord Gáis will be writing to all properties connected to the public water mains next May asking them to confirm personal details so they can be set up as customers of Irish Water ready for billing.