Donegal Government Minister Joe McHugh says that the Government has listened to the people on Irish Water admitting many mistakes were made.
It was announced yesterday that households that register will get a €100 Water Conservation Grant each year, resulting in net charges of €60 for a single adult household and €160 for other households.
PPS numbers will not be required for registration and Irish Water will delete any numbers it has already received
Minister McHugh welcomed the measures but says trust between the Government and the people will have to be rebuilt:
Households who don’t pay the water charge could face bills and penalties of over a thousand euro within two years.
The government’s confirmed that the penalties for not paying the charges will continue to mount over time.
It means that the longer the charges aren’t paid, the higher their penalties will be.
Alan Kelly told the Dail that penalties will be added to unpaid water bills every year.
But a briefing document prepared for TDs confirms that those penalties will continue to accumulate over time.
For every year that a household doesn’t pay the bill, it will run up more and more penalties – while at the same time incurring new fines for the bills that come in afterwards.
It means that the average family will see their bills almost double if they don’t pay for three years.
Instead of a net total of 480 in charges, those families will instead face a total bill of 1 thousand 140 euro.
The way the penalties build up is proving to be a serious problem for landlords – who are refusing to co-operate with the new scheme.
Property owners’ groups say the charges will mount up so quickly, that in some cases, taking the money from a deposit still won’t cover the bill.
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