Country’s first water meter installed as roll-out begins
Next month, the €450m installation scheme will extend to homes in Co Meath, Co Wexford, and Co Kerry, while water meters will be fitted in parts of Co Limerick, Co Mayo, Fingal County, and Dublin City in October.
It will be 2015, however, before the first water bills will have to be paid.
Homeowners can expect notification from Irish Water by post two weeks in advance of the two-person metering team coming to their home.
Another leaflet will be put in the door two days in advance of arrival. However, according to Irish Water, there is no need for a householder to be at home during installation, which will take about two hours.
The installers will not be coming on to private property, as the metre will be installed on the public thoroughfare.
Once the meter is put in place, the installers will check to see if water supply has returned to normal.
Three regional contractors will be installing the meters over six regions, and those who have not received a meter at that stage will be billed on their estimated usage.
Irish Water — the new subsidiary of Bord Gáis established to oversee the introduction of a water-metering system in the Republic — estimates that 27,000 meters will be installed every month between next month and the end of 2016.
The digital meters — which are fitted with tamper-proof technology — can be read remotely by Irish Water for billing purposes.
Two-person installation teams will fit between five and seven meters a day on average and will carry out work between 8am and 6pm from Monday to Saturday.
Last month, Phil Hogan, the environment minister, signalled that the Government will sanction a “first free fix” scheme to cover the cost of any leaks discovered between the meter and a householder’s property.
Householders will start being charged for domestic water usage from October next year, although they will not receive their first bills until Jan 2015.
They will have to wait until later this year to discover how much the new water charges will set them back, and how much free monthly water allowance households are to be allocated.
