CUSTOMERS WHO MADE €100 PROFIT FROM FIASCO

MANY householders will make a €100 profit out of the Irish Water debacle purely by have having registered with the utility.

More than 880,000 householders to date have been paid the €100 water conservation grant from the Department of Social Protection.

Irish Water confirmed that more than 1.3million households registered with the firm before the June deadline and were invited to apply for the grant.

The Department of Social Protection confirmed that a total of 888,956 payment applications have been processed to date.

That suggests around 400,000 have taken the grant money but not paid their bills.

The water conservation grant is a national scheme for all private homes, irrespective of whether households are Irish Water customers.

The Department said it had no information on the number of people who registered and availed of the grant but who have not paid a bill to date.

Such an anomaly is possible as anybody who registered with Irish Water is eligible for the €100 payment, regardless of whether they had paid their bills.

The Department of Social Protection made payments of €100 to 156,249 households in September but figures are not known to date how many people have now received the €100.

Irish Water received calls after reports about the scrapping of the utility. A spokesman said: ‘Customers have contacted us with queries as would be expected with the media coverage but they are continuing to pay.

‘Irish Water remains absolutely focused on the vital job of fixing Ireland’s water services.

‘Customers are continuing to engage with us to make payments on their accounts and more customers are paying with each billing cycle.’