Irish Water debt measures brought before Cabinet

Debt-enforcement measures will today be brought to the Cabinet table to deduct unpaid water charge bills from people’s welfare payments, pay packets, and from tenants’ deposits.

The measures, which were flagged earlier this year, will allow Irish Water go after households who have the ability to pay bills but are unwilling to do so.

The Civil Debt Procedure Bill will see attachment orders to people’s earnings replace imprisonment as a final form of sanction against people who are refusing to pay bills.