Domestic water meters are now being installed at a rate of one every 30 seconds, with more than 400,000 already in place, Minister for Environment Alan Kelly said yesterday.
With households set to receive bills for metered water from January next, Mr Kelly said the installation programme was “unparalleled anywhere in its scale” and is sustaining 1,200 jobs in the industry.
Speaking at the annual Environmental Protection Agency conference in Dublin he said transferring responsibility for water services from local authorities to Irish Water would raise standards in places where water quality was not good enough.
Mr Kelly was followed by assistant secretary general of the Department of Environment Marie Graham who said the rate at which Irish Water was established was "phenomenal". Even President Higgins had signed the 2013 Water Services Act into law on Christmas Day last, she said.
Ms Graham said there would be an annual Government subvention to Irish Water of €537m to fund family water allowances while ensuring the average annual bill did not go above €240. In addition there would be provision of €400m for capital funding covering 2015 and 2016, which she said was €100m more than current levels.
But she warned there was “a legacy past” of underinvestment which had left drinking water and waste water plants which were “not fit for purpose” in many areas of the country.
She said once people were paying for water they would be conscious of its value but she warned the focus for Irish Water must be on “customer service, efficiency and performance”.
The conference also heard from Marianne Wenning the EU Commission's director for Quality of Life, Water and Air, DG Environment, who said water was becoming an increasingly important global resource for both agriculture and industry. She said at the current rate the global demand for water would exceed supplies by 40 percent by 2030.
Addressing the conference on the subject of climate change Environmental Protection Agency director general Laura Burke said Ireland needed to move to a zero carbon energy market by 2050.
“We need to plan for, and move rapidly to, transition to zero fossil carbon energy systems by 2050 at the latest” she said.
Welcoming a recent Government discussion paper on the issue she said the measures now needed to be put in place to get to zero carbon energy by 2050.
She said power generation was the source of about 21 percent of CO2 emissions and with Moneypoint coal burning plant in Co Clare needing to be replaced by 2025, there needed to be progress on alternative energy sources.
Dr Burke said wind, hydro and tidal energies were not new technologies and should all be considered in generating electricity along with second generation biomass and agricultural waste.
Asked if nuclear power should be considered as part of the package Dr Burke said it should . But she warned the assessment would have to include the carbon factors in commissioning and decommissioning a nuclear plant.
Such plants generally require significant amount of cement, the manufacture of which is usually a key generator of carbon emissions.
“ Decarbonised Electricity has an important role in reducing emission in other sectors - transport, residential, industry and low carbon power generation is well understood and feasible” she said.
Such a move would also help with the State’s balance of payments and energy security needs as imported fossil fuels currently cost about €6.5 billion annually.
Dr Burke said “to an extent the phasing out of fossil energy has started” with the replacement of imported fossil fuels saving an estimated €260 million in fuel and emission charges last year, she said.
“This is enabling new industry and employment- in fact it is estimated that Ireland is currently spending €1.5 billion per year on sustainable energy solutions, supporting 18,000 jobs”, she added.
