Parents of teenagers face being hit for €800 a year once the caps are lifted

FAMILIES with teenagers and young adults going through college could be hit with crippling water bills once the caps are lifted in three years, according to waterconsumption experts.

Households with two or three adolescents living at home could face bills of about €800, based on usage figures from the first bills received this week.

One group water scheme representative told the Irish Mail on Sunday that such usage was well within normal levels for families with older children.

Irish Water will be issuing almost 40,000 bills every night for the next eight weeks to cover the period between January and March.

The bills are capped at €160 for single-adult households and €260 for homes with two or more adults. However, the cap will only remain in place until the end of 2018.

The bills provide an ominous glimpse of how much families will be charged once the caps are inevitably lifted.

Glenda Smith, 49, who is from Dublin but has been living in Gorey, Co. Wexford for 25 years, said she was shocked to discover that her family would be charged about €800 per year once the caps are lifted.

The mother of three, who is a medical secretary, received a €65 bill on Wednesday for the 90-day period. But when she turned it over she saw that her family had used 54,591 litres since the start of the year, which would result in a metered charge of €201.

Ms Smith explained that one of her sons is under 17, so when the children’s allowance is taken into account, the family’s annual bill would be €740.

However, she pointed out that by the time the caps are lifted her son will no longer be eligible for the children’s allowance.

‘I don’t know what we’re going to do. It’s frightening,’ she said.

Ms Smith was so shocked by the bill that she contacted two neighbours to compare.

She said: ‘I called in to a neighbour who lives near us and her reading for the 90 days was €212, even higher than ours.

‘I spoke with another and their reading was €221 for the three months. They nearly got sick when they saw what the amount was going to be.’

James O’Brien, whose family are members of the Tullyallen group water scheme outside Drogheda, said these usage figures were completely normal for families with teenagers and young adults.

The not-for-profit scheme delivers water to 172 people, with the average family paying €100 per year. However, it does not deal with waste water.

The 67-year-old retired secondary school teacher said the Smith family would pay just €100 for their water for the year – almost four times cheaper than the €370 charged by Irish Water.

He explained: ‘This family [the Smiths] have teenagers and young adults living there and in our experience it is these types of families that have higher usage.

‘The amount of water this family use is about normal from what we have seen.’

According to their bill, the Smiths use about 606 litres per day.

England and Wales’s Water Services Regulation Authority (OFWAT) figures state that the average family of five use about 523 litres per day – only slightly less than the Smiths.

In August last year the MoS revealed that Irish Water’s estimates for water usage were 30% lower than the figures supplied by OFWAT. The utility failed to explain that disparity.

It was put to Irish Water again on Friday, in light of the Smiths’s bill, but it declined to address the question, instead replying with a statement about the water conservation grant and how the charges are capped until 2018.

‘Any change in water charges after that date is subject to consultation with and approval of the Commission for Energy Regulation.’ The spokesman for Irish Water added: ‘The CER’s primary responsibility is to protect the customers’ best interests.’

‘I don’t know what we will do, it’s frightening’