Surge in Irish Water registrations over weekend, says utility

Irish Water has reported a surge of people registering with the utility since Friday and said that close to one million of the 1.5 million homes which rely on public water had signed up ahead of Monday night's deadline.

There will be no penalties imposed on those who failed to meet the “deadline” for registration, although some who fail to sign up may face higher charges at some future point.

Irish Water spokeswoman Elizabeth Arnett told The Irish Times there would be an assumption made that those who did not confirm their details to Irish Water were part of a two-adult household so would face the standard €260 charge.

Conservation grant

Ms Arnett also said households which did not register with the controversial utility would not be in a position to apply to the

Department of Social Protection

for the €100 water conservation grant, although the deadline for applying for that grant is still some way off.

“We will make an assumption that you are on a standard charge; in other words, that you have more than two adults in the household and that you have both water and waste water services, and in that respect your bill would be €260,” she said.

“You may need to have a lower charge than that; we can’t determine that unless you’ve contacted us. Similarly, in terms of the €100 conservation grant, unless your details have been confirmed with us you won’t be able to apply to the Department of Social Protection for that.”

More than 30,000 households registered with Irish Water over the weekend. Just over half of the households expected to pay bills to Irish Water have registered their details with the new utility.

First bills

Some 900,000 homes have provided their details to Irish Water out of the estimated 1.5 million customers who will receive their first water bills in April. An estimated 400,000 households will not be required to pay bills because they have private wells and septic tanks.

There is no penalty for not registering by this time, but the default rate of €260 will apply to households with no confirmed details. Irish Water will continue to accept confirmation from people or changes in their details after the deadline.

A statement from Irish Water said 1.065 million households had registered their details with the utility, which includes about 200,000 responses from homes who are not Irish Water customers.

The Department of Social Protection has set aside a budget of €130 million to pay for the €100 water conservation grant, equivalent to paying the fee to 1.3 million households.

The Department of the Environment confirmed there was no deadline for households to apply for this grant, which will be paid from September.