The Commissioner for Energy Regulation has said Irish Water’s metering programme can be parked while the utility focused on other capital priorities.
Speaking during the first day of hearings of the Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services, Paul McGowan said CER was not, however, recommending that water metering be abandoned completely.
"At this time, to proceed with another major metering programme investment given the proposal from the Expert Commission that the vast majority of the water would be paid for by the State, and only excessive water usage would be paid for ... in that context, there are other priorities for capital investment," Mr McGowan said.
He agreed with the suggestion that he meant that metering could be "parked".
Mr McGowan also said the first phase of metering was a decision by government and the possible future installation of meters, including to apartment buildings, was always going to be something the regulator would look at, in terms of cost benefit.
"Metering is a regulatory matter, forming the basis for charging regimes," Mr McGowan said.
The Committee also heard Irish Water has installed 884,000 water meters around the country.
This was described as 75% complete by Fine Gael TD Kate O'Connell.
Jerry Grant, Managing Director of Irish Water, earlier told the committee that the utility had replaced 840km of pipe.
They had also built nine new treatment plants and upgraded 18.
He told members that by 2021 they would have delivered a range of tangible benefits including the elimination of boil water notices.
The funding requirement for the company 2017-2021 is €8bn, Ervia's Group Finance Director Cathal Marley said.
He said there was a requirement for certainty on funding, on a long term basis.
Mr Marley told the committee that the loss of income to Irish Water this year will be €239m. He was asked for the figures by Fianna Fáil's John Lahart.
Ervia's Group Chief Executive Officer Michael McNicholas reiterated his earlier comment that Irish Water's responsibility was to fix the problem of water and waste water and metering was secondary to that.
He said metering drove conservation because users have information about their usage and paying for the service showed where savings could be made.
Mr McNicholas also strongly defended the company's spend on consultants, saying the spend was on "experts which was necessary."
He said the cost of setting up Irish Water was 100m less when compared to the establishment of utility companies in other countries, and an Irish company had built an Irish company faster than an international one.
He also said the money was spent on experts tasked with building the necessary software and computer systems needed to establish a national water services company.
Mr McNicholas was responding to Fine Gael TD Jim Daly who said the perception of Irish Water's spend on consultants was unfair.
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