First water bills arrive in Tallaght

AS THE first water bills arrive in Tallaght, a local householder has expressed her shock at receiving the bill.
The woman, who did not wish to be named showed her bill to The Echo.
She said: “I was a little bit shocked to get it.to be honest. To get a water bill when you don’t even have a meter. That doesn’t make any sense to me. How does Irish Water know how much water I am using.”
The woman described how her and her husband are divided over whether to pay or not to pay.
She told The Echo: “We are kind of torn in my house. I do and I don’t want to pay but my husband definitely does not want to pay. I understand why people have issues with Irish Water but I do believe that at the end of the day we are going to have to pay.”
Local Councillor Nicky Coules (People Before Profit) accused Irish Water of sending out bills in small batches to minimise opposition.
Cllr Coules told The Echo: “I would advocate for people not to pay. We have been advocating for a boycott from the beginning. We heard that bills were arriving in Belgard Heights earlier this week. The bills don’t seem to be sent out together. It could be a tactic that Irish Water are using to minimise opposition.”
He added: “The battle is not over and still very much could be won.”
A Spokesperson for Irish Water told The Echo that bills are being sent out on a regular basis.
She said: “Billing is being rolled out on a phased basis over an eight week period and during that time bills will be posted or emailed to every region of the country, every day. It will take eight weeks to issue all bills in the first cycle so bills will arrive between April and June. Any customer who hasn’t received a bill by June should contact the Irish Water Customer Contact Centre The first billing period covers 1st January to 31st March.
“If a customer gets their first bill at the end of the billing cycle i.e. in June, they can expect to get their next bill approximately three months later and subsequent bills every three months after that.”
Elizabeth Arnett Head of Communications and Corporate Services with Irish Water said, “We have now started the billing process and we will send a bill to 1.5 million customers over the coming eight weeks”.