Government could face €144m in water charge repayments

The Government faces a €144m bill if it decides to pay back water charges after figures show the utility took €33.4m in payments this year before the payments were axed.

The figures, published by Irish Water, show it has taken in a total of €144.2m in charges across four different billing cycles.

Despite the general election result in February casting immediate doubt on the future of water charges, there was a net drop of just 2,000 in the number of people scrapping their direct debit payments to the utility in the first three months of the year.