Irish Water needs overhaul to meet independent status

Irish Water will need to be completely overhauled, becoming much more of a commercial entity and charging more economic prices for water if the Government wants its debts off the national books, according to Eurostat.

The Government hoped the EU’s statistics body would find that Irish Water was more of a commercial body and its finances would not be part of the deficit.

The utility will add 0.2% of GDP, which amounts to €581m to the State deficit this year.