Water & Sewerage - Questions

Are water charges being introduced?

In October 2007 , following receipt of the Independent Water Review Panel's (IWRP) Strand 1 report, the Executive agreed to introduce additional payments for water and sewerage services provided to houiseholds from April 2009.

The Executive decided to defer decisions on the way in which households would make payments until it had considered the IWRP's Strand 2 report. These points were announced by Minister Conor Murphy on 22 October 2007.

In its Strand 2 report the IWRP concluded (paragraph 7.16) that everyone should contribute towards water and sewerage services.

The Executive is still considering the Strand 2 recommendations and has not yet decided on the methodology for household payments. It is due to consider this issue and other aspects of the IWRP's recommendation shortly.

The Executive accepted the IWRP's recommendation that payments for the non-domestic sector should proceed as planned but agreed to phase in the new charges over a two year period with non-domestic customers paying half of the new water and sewerage charges in 2008/09 and full charges in 2009/10

How does the Shareholder Unit differ from the Water Policy Unit

,The Water Policy Unit deals with matters of policy relating to the new status of Northern Ireland Water, such as the charging regime.

As government is the shareholder of the business and has set shareholder objectives such as greater efficiency, best practice in government management of business means that the Department needs to separate its policy interest from its shareholder interest. Hence the Shareholder Unit and Water Policy Division are distinct business areas.