Excess water charges will not be introduced ‘at this time’

Although domestic water charges were abolished nearly a decade ago, the potential for their return is yet to fully evaporate.

The Government has dropped plans for an excess water charge for domestic households. Minister for Housing James Browne TD “is not giving consideration at this time to bringing in such charges”, according to a spokesperson for the Department.

“No proposal has been brought to the minister in this regard, and charges do not form part of the current programme for government,” the spokesperson adds.

Furthermore, Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD has affirmed: “There will be no return to water charges.”

However, speculation had arisen in October 2024, when Uisce Éireann published its Water Charges Plan which outlined a maximum allowance of 213,000 litres of water per annum per domestic household. If this allowance is breached, the water utility suggested, a household would be liable for a charge of €1.85 per 1,000 litres of water used. Charges would be capped at €250. This would apply to both wastewater and drinking water.

In March 2025, Deputy Browne said the charges were “intended to encourage water conservation and not designed as a revenue raising measure”.

Opposition TDs criticised the proposals, with Eoin Ó Broin TD, Sinn Féin spokesperson for housing, saying the policy was an attempt to implement water charges “by the back door”.

“The claim that the introduction of a charge for so-called excessive water usage is a water conservation measure is utterly false.”

“The Government’s real intention will be to introduce the principle of charging for domestic water services as the first step in water charges being applied to all households,” he said.

Excess water charges were planned to be introduced in 2019, but were first postponed until 2022, and then 2025.

Following the latest announcement, Sinn Féin leader, Mary Lou McDonald TD and Deputy Ó Broin submitted draft legislation to rule out the reintroduction of water charges.

Ireland remains the only country in the EU that has not implemented domestic water charges. Instead, Uisce Éireann is largely funded through general taxation, with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage providing 80 per cent of the state-owned company’s funding, with non-domestic charges and connection fees accounting for the remaining 20 per cent.

Charging for water has been a political football for almost half a century. In 2017, charges for domestic households were abolished following widespread public protests having been reintroduced in 2014 as an austerity measure.

Published in November 2016, a report from the Joint Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services supported holding a referendum on whether public ownership of water services should be enshrined in the Constitution, effectively allowing privatisation only in the case of a public vote.

Despite pressure from activists and trade unions, no such referendum has been held to date or been seriously considered by government.