Water Charges
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-17
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Eileen Lynch (FG), Agricultural Panel

I thank the Minister of State very much for the reply. I appreciate this matter does not fall under his Department, so I thank him again. I note the contents of the reply, and I know the background to Uisce Éireann and Irish Water and all of that. I understand it and the importance of water as a resource and the need for it to be financed. The reply, however, is incredibly disappointing because, to me, it does not seem to be that there is any wriggle room there at all in terms of reviewing this matter, and that is what I am looking for. It is insane for a group of the size of the one I am talking about to be paying €69,500. This could potentially make a €2 million project fall to the ground. We are not unique in this regard because there are other cases like this all around the country. As I said, though, they are not everyday occurrences. There is even the use of language in respect of the term, "non-domestic customers". We are being charged a commercial rate for what is not a commercial entity. Regarding all the examples given in terms of non-domestic customers, including schools, sports clubs, community groups, not-for-profit organisations and charities, where do companies and commercial entities fall in? All the non-domestic customer examples given were, generally, not-for-profit entities.
I note too that initially when those groups were transferred to Irish Water there were no charges, and then a fixed tariff was set up. Where are we getting these figures from and where is the breakdown coming from? It is actually very difficult to get that information from Irish Water. I would really appreciate if the Minister of State could raise this matter further with the Minister.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:28+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-17