Irish Water: Over-18s will not be exempt

Irish Water has signalled it does not expect older teenagers to be exempted from charges as it defended paying executives almost three times more than English equivalents.

Following calls for all school-goers over 18 to be allowed the same “free” allowance as children, the new utility said it was bound by welfare rules.

Irish Water’s spokeswoman Elizabeth Arnett said the free allocation was linked to welfare rules where benefits were only provided for those under 18 in education.

Ms Arnett insisted that households with four adults would be able to use metering to bring their annual bill down to close to the estimated €240 a year average — despite the fact less than one third of homes will be metered by the time the first bills arrive in January.

The National Parents Council Post Primary called on the Government to alter the rules as it is estimated at least 25,000 school pupils will be hit by water usage bills of €102 a year when they turn 18.

Thc extra cost for older teens has sparked fears pupils may be forced to quit education because of the increased financial burden.

The row came as Socialist TD Joe Higgins urged the Commissioner for Energy Regulation to scrap the public consultation process on charges because the pricing was based on false figures.

In a letter to the regulator, the TD wrote: “The calculations on projected water usage, which you have uncritically accepted from Irish Water, are patently contradicted by existing Irish and international experience. The upshot of this is that normal water usage and therefore the projected water charges are grossly underestimated.

“What this means is that Irish Water grossly, and deliberately, underestimate the burden that water charges will mean for ordinary households.

“Irish Water's figures are totally at variance with all other studies both in Ireland and Internationally and therefore cannot be accepted as a basis for any genuine consultation.”

Ms Arnett moved to defend the salary structure of the water giant by pointing to service level agreements with local authorities it had entered into.

The company needed more staff due to Ireland having more treatment plants per capita than England and Wales due to a more dispersed population, the spokesperson said.

Ms Arnett said Irish Water’s operating costs were almost twice the average of utility companies in England and Wales because it was a start-up operation.

“We’ve been under-investing in water services for decades now and we have a system that doesn’t have the sort of advantages that they have in the UK where they’ve been investing properly for decades.

“So we haven’t got the sort of modern system that we would like to have throughout the network. That requires an additional level of staffing.”

The spokesperson said the issue of free child allocations could be the subject of submissions during the public consultation process which ends this month.