Water charge of up to €400 before meters installed

Households will have to pay a flat rate fee of up to €400 per year for two years while Irish Water completes the installation of meters in more than one million homes.

Irish Water yesterday confirmed it will start the process of installing the meters within “a number of weeks”, and that “it is going to take 2.5 to three years to fully install meters in all qualifying properties”.

Irish Water Board chief executive John Mullins said it would only start tendering for the meters themselves through a Europe-wide process next month and that, in order to start the installation process, it would need to survey every water main in the country, “going down every road and every avenue”.