Homes to be charged for water by end 2014

Householders across Ireland will start being charged for domestic water usage from October next year, although they will not receive their first bills for water charges until Jan 2015.

Environment Minister Phil Hogan confirmed yesterday the Government had reached an agreement with the troika to defer the introduction of the controversial charges from the original target of early 2014 until the last quarter of next year.

However, consumers will have to wait until later this year to discover the scale of charges being imposed and how much free monthly water allowance they will be allocated.