Kenny says scale of water charges to be known before elections

People will have an indication of what they will be paying in water charges before the May local elections, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.

He told the Dail today the Government would publish the business model for Irish Water by then, and this would indicate the average charge per household.

The Taoiseach was replying in the Dáil today to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin who asked why there had been a delay in producing the business model. "Given all the money that has been spent on Irish Water, all the recruitment and so on, it is stretching credibility to suggest that you would not know what the bottom line is at this stage,'' he added.

Mr Kenny said it had not been published because the Government wanted to get it as right as possible.

A great deal of work had been done on it and it would be published in the not too distant future.

He added it should be devised in a way that people would feel it was necessary, fair and affordable.

Mr Martin said Labour had made it clear, before coming into office, that it did not believe in water charges.

He added nobody could understand why the level of Government subvention, social affordability and free allowance were not known at this stage.