Leitrim family given an estimate of €150,000 for water connection to home, meeting told

One household was given an estimate of €150,000 for water and wastewater connections, members heard at a recent meeting with Cllr Paddy O'Rourke stating that that the issue, in his view, was that "a few large contractors have a monopoly and are not compelled to compete for work. One family here in Leitrim had an estimate of €150,000 to connect their home to the network," he stated. 

Cllr O'Rourke had also spoke of another Leitrim case where "a contractor gave an estimate- it was only a few metres to connect to a sewer- of €24,000 and he couldn't award to him because he wasn't on the so-called list and those who were on the list charged him €80,000."

After contacting Uisce Éireann, the Leitrim Observer was advised that the water company "has recently broadened the scope for permitting accredited contractors (appointed by the customer directly) to deliver water services infrastructure in the public road."

The company continued that the "established and implemented an enduring Connection Charging Policy in January 2019 which provided a standard set of charges for connections to Uisce Éireann’s water and wastewater networks."

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In the statement provided, the water company continued that "the policy was derived from the charging principles provided to Uisce Éireann by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) and has been applied consistently to all customers seeking connection to the network regardless of any regional or local variations. This ensured equity and non-discrimination in the provision of a standard, transparent connection charging regime for Uisce Éireann’s customers.

 The policy is based on Standard Connection Charges for the majority of connections, however some connections may inevitably have additional Quotable Charge elements, dependent on customer specific load or volume requirements, site specific factors and distance from the network.

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They continued that "quotable charges are applied by Uisce Éireann based on competitive rates tendered by third party contractors."

For more information on this programme, please see the following link: Self Lay in Public Road Pilot | Connections | Uisce Éireann (formerly Irish Water).