The price of water

Sir, – I received my water bill last week. I had opted for a direct debit with the original “application form” in September 2014 and filled out the mandate with details of my bank account. The bill now received asks me to fill out a mandate again with the very same information.

More amusing is the fact that in the Helpful Information booklet which accompanied the bill, the Iban number for Irish Water's bank account was incorrect. Rather than simply enclose an erratum slip (which would have drawn wide attention to the mistake) the correction was tucked into a separate note on electronic payments.

These two occurrences add to the impression that the Irish Water is incompetent on even the most basic administrative matters. – Yours, etc,

JOHN F JORDAN,

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Killiney, Co Dublin.

Sir, – I, like thousands of other householders, have recently received my first domestic water services bill. The metered charge for 90 days was €94.04, while the capped charge was just €64.10. As a household of three adults this works out at just under 25 cent per day for each of us.

For a household of five people the charge would reduce to less than 15 cent per person. Even at the higher charge of under 35 cent per day, this very small amount of expenditure seems to me to represent extraordinary good value, having covered the supply and disposal of all the water used in this household for the purposes of drinking, personal hygiene, cooking, cleaning, dish-washing, clothes washing and gardening, as well as that used by visitors.

Life would indeed be sweet if other companies offered their clients such rates for services supplied. – Yours, etc,

Rev TERRY LILBURN,

Milltown,

Dublin 14.