According to figures released last night, less than half of the Irish Water customers have paid their water charges so far this year.
The semi-state company began billing customers in January but so far they have only collected 46% of charges owed to them during the first three months of this year.
According to the Irish Times, Irish Water project to be taking in around €271 million in a full year meaning that they should be collecting a cool €66.8 million during the first three months. After the first quarterly billing though, the figures show that only €30.5 million has been collected.
This translates to about 675,000 paying households from the reported amount of 1.5 million that have paid their water charges from the first three months.
The bills for the second quarter of the year, April to June, are due to be sent out this month along with reminders to any household that have yet to pay the first quarters bill.
Any household that fails to make payments over the first year will be charged €30 if it’s a single person households and €60 thereafter while Irish Water will also be able to deduct unpaid bills from wages and social welfare.
Hat tip to the Irish Times.
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