There is further bad news for those who paid their water charges as a number of reports state that those who did not pay their charges are unlikely to be pursued.
The news comes as existing legislation states that people can only be summoned to appear in court if their arrears are above €500. The ruling has come as a big blow to some 950,000 people who paid their charges after it was also revealed that those who have paid will not receive refunds.
The suspension of the charges has now caused major confusion as both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael reiterated that they will not be issuing refunds but instead be pursuing those who haven’t paid their charges to date. According to the Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney and Finance Minister Michael Noonan, Irish Water will actively continue to seek arrears from anyone who has not paid a bill.
However the latest threats seem to have no substance because the previous Government decided to cap an average families water bill at €260, which means that a household would need two years’ worth of unpaid bills before they can be summoned to appear in court.
This however is not possible as the Water charges only came into effect on January 1st 2015. Although both parties have discussed the possibility of forming a special committee that will deal with the issue of refunds but this will take up to a year to set up and water charges will be reintroduced rendering any refund useless.