Irish Water's new non-domestic tariff framework for business customers has officially gone live today, Friday 01 October.

Announced by the utility's economic regulator, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), the changes were originally due to go live on 01 May 2020 but were deferred to 01 May 2021 and again to 01 October 2021 due to the uncertainty for businesses under the essential government public health guidelines due to COVID-19.

Irish Water's Yvonne Harris (Head of Customer Operations) said: "Irish Water understands the continued challenges faced by businesses; our aim is to ensure that every business across the country is provided with a clear, transparent, equitable charging regime regardless of location. Previously there were over 500 different tariffs, with customers in different local authority areas paying different charges. There had been no change to charges since 2014 and in many cases much longer. The new framework will now standardise charges across the country while recovering the cost of providing water and wastewater services to non-domestic customers. Over the last few months we wrote to all business customers to outline what the changes meant for them, the vast majority of customers will see either a decrease or an increase of less than €250 per annum, in their annual bills.

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"For customers who will face larger increases in their annual bill, Irish Water have put in place a number of important support measures. Connections that see an increase of €250 or more will be transitioned to the new tariffs over three years. For connections that will face an increase of €750 or more, we will automatically apply a 10% cap to their annual bill increase in any one year. Throughout this process, both Irish Water and the CRU have examined international best practice and consulted with representative groups and individual businesses across the country. This approach has greatly helped in developing charges that are clear, simple, and fair to all."