Rosy start for installation of first water meters in Tralee

They’ve said goodbye to the Roses, but yesterday Tralee said hello to water meters.

The Kerry town became the second place after Co Kildare, and the first in Munster, to witness the rolling out of water meter installation, with devices installed in the Oakpark area of the town.

The roll-out is part of an estimated total of 1.1m domestic water meters that will eventually feature around the country.

Meters will be installed outside residences on the public water mains in Tralee and north Kerry in the coming months. Yesterday’s installations were carried out by Kerry-based Denis Moriarty The Kerries Ltd, working for J Murphy & Son, the main contractors to Irish Water for the metering programme in Cork and Kerry.

A spokesperson for J Murphy & Son said Denis Moriarty had already installed 17,000 non-domestic meters in Co Kerry.

A total of 12,000 water meters are scheduled to be installed in north Kerry in the coming months, with as many as 60 installers working directly on fitting new meters.

Householders must receive at least two weeks’ prior notification that a meter is to be installed, and yesterday Irish Water stressed that there are no up-front costs for meters, with water charges due to be introduced in the last quarter of 2014 and the first bills issuing the following January.

The company said the meters are being installed between 8am to 6pm and each installation should take from 15 minutes to two hours.

The meters are placed in a box fitted underground in the public footpath outside the domestic property by installers with official Irish Water identification and branded uniforms. Irish Water said installers will never ask to enter homes.

The company hopes that an average of 27,000 meters will be installed monthly. Anyone with queries can contact its customer centre on 1890-278278 or via www.water.ie.