Irish Water only manages to collect 27% of charges due, new figures reveal

A DRAMATIC drop in the number of households paying their domestic water charges means that the continuation of the unfair charges is no longer viable, says Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó Broin TD.

The bills which were sent out in April and May were the fifth cycle to be issued from Irish Water, but the company has confirmed that revenue in this cycle has dropped from €33.4million to €18.3million. 

This represents a drop of 45% in the number of charges collected compared to the last quarter, to a total of just 27% of bills.

The highest level of payment came in the third cycle, when Irish Water managed to collect 62% of moneys due.

“These massive slumps in payment rates show clearly that water charges have no future. With the government and Fianna Fáil still only advocating for a temporary suspension of the charges, it appears they are not listening to the people,” the Dublin Mid-West TD said.

Ó Broin said it is time for the delay tactics to end and for the scrapping of water charges to be legislated for:

“Everything else is only kicking the can down the road. Water charges will remain the most contentious of political issues until this government and Fianna Fáil accept that last February the majority of people votes to scrap water charges and abolish Irish Water.”