The government was dead set on bringing in water charges by 2014, however, according to senior water industry sources it looks like 2016 is a more realistic target.
For a while there, all that everyone could talk about was the introduction of water meters. Then, for some reason (most likely the Household Charge) everyone stopped talking about them. Well they’re back in the news again and this time it looks like they’re going to be delayed. Well we’re not complaining…
Apparently, the water meters can’t be installed until the number and location of all the stopcocks in your house have been determined and it’s taking a lot longer to find this out than was originally expected.
Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan initially wanted to get work started by the end of this year with plans for finishing up in 2014. The government also said that it would not charge for water until the meters have been installed across the country.
So it looks good from the perspective of not having to pay an extra charge for another few years, but it still means a lot of people will be wasting water – which will no doubt change when they’re made pay for it.
According to senior industry sources, the government was a tad off with their prediction that it would all be completed by 2014 and that finishing by Spring 2016 would still be a difficult target to reach.
Ah well, at least we can forget about that for another few years.
