EU 'monitoring' if water charges introduced in Ireland

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

59% : A senior official at the Department of Housing had said the charge aimed to encourage water conservation that would "ensure" Ireland's compliance with the EU water framework directive.
57% : The FOI documents also show a civil servant from the water services department said the EU were "monitoring" the charge and had asked about it in January: "It should be also noted that the EU are monitoring the introduction of this charge with the query below from January 2025: "Are IE authorities finally implementing the 'excessive use' charges for domestic users of water services?
54% : The regulations underpinning exemptions to the charges were updated in 2023 and examined again in 2025.
54% : In a note dated February 12 2025, it was stated that once the regulations for exemptions are in place, they "can proceed with implementing household water conservation charge".
52% : The European Union (EU) had been "monitoring" the introduction of excess water use charges in Ireland, according to a Department of Housing official.
50% : The Government said its position to upgrade Ireland's ailing water systems through general taxation remained unchanged.
45% : Taoiseach Micheal Martin said there would be "no return to water charges" while Housing Minister James Browne said he was not considering bringing in excessive use charges "at this time". Documents released under a Freedom of Information request show that civil servants in the Department of Housing were preparing the groundwork to introduce regulations that would allow for exemptions to excess water use charges.
45% : There is no further work being done on these regulations," it said.
44% : The island of Ireland is the only part of the EU that does not have metered water charges.

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