The Environment Minister Alan Kelly has issued a warning this afternoon saying that every single person will have to pay their Irish Water bills “one way or the other”.
Mr Kelly made the statement after news was broken recently that less than half of all households in the country paid their first bill. According to statistics published by Irish Water the company has claimed just over €30.5m out of nearly €67m owed to them, however Mr Kelly has seen the income as a “an extremely good start”, saying that it compared favourably with similar measures both here and abroad.
Mr Kelly said: “One way the other, everyone will end up having to pay, because of the process that’ll be put in place, “The debt management procedures, which aren’t being done by myself, they’re bring done by the Minister for Justice, will ensure that everybody will pay.”
The statement will most likely be rebuffed by anti-water charge protesters who have been encouraging people to burn their bills in protest of what they call extremely unfair charges to the general public.