40,000 register with Irish Water on water deadline day

Almost 40,000 households rushed to register with Irish Water on Monday to fulfill its February 2 deadline, according to the utility company.

By yesterday morning, Irish Water had received the registration details of 906,953 people, out of a total ‘validation’ contact list of 1.148m households.

The number of registered customers at lunchtime Monday had stood at 869,000, indicating 40,000 people attempted to make the Monday night deadline to ensure they could apply to the Department of Social Protection for the water conservation grant later in the year and, furthermore, enabling them to receive a correct bill in early April.

However, using Irish Water’s own figures, it leaves an estimated 352,000 households that have yet to make contact over any possible registration.

The Anti-Austerity Alliance disputes that figure and claims the numbers are considerably higher.

A spokesperson for Irish Water said yesterday that 12,000 application letters were received in the post on Tuesday morning while the company’s telephone service took 4,000 registration calls on Monday.

The Irish Property Owners’ Association put paid to any suggestion that tenants could lose out on their rights to the rebate if they had not registered by the deadline.

However, the Residential Landlords Association said it is seeking a meeting with Environment Minister Alan Kelly over issues for property owners, in cases where tenants have not registered.

Irish Water has said bills will go to landlords unless the utility company is informed otherwise. Fintan McNamara of the Residential Landlords Association said landlords “want no hand, act or part with this“.

Speaking on RTÉ radio, he said: “If bills do come to us, obviously we will have to get in touch with Irish Water that we are not residing in the premises and direct them as to who is the occupier.”

He said it was up to each individual landlord as to whether or not to pass tenant details on to Irish Water, adding that landlords were in “a very invidious position in relation to this“.

Mr McNamara said consideration should be given to cutting off the water service of those tenants that do not register, something already ruled out as an option by the minister.