VIDEO: Court service fears of ‘excessive’ water bill caseload

The court service has privately told Environment Minister Alan Kelly it will be unable to cope with the “excessive burden” of up to 500,000 court cases if people continue to refuse to pay their water bills.

Senior officials for the judicial system stressed the point in a memo to the Labour deputy leader in recent days, warning that the service is already “overstretched” and would struggle to deal with the extra workload.

Under measures due to be signed off on by Cabinet later this month, anyone who refuses to pay their Irish Water bills will face post-general election court cases.