The amount of money collected by Irish Water in water charges has dropped substantially following recent political controversies and the impending suspension of charges.

Irish Water released details yesterday of the amount of money it collected for its fourth billing cycle, which covered the last three months of 2015.The bills were sent out in January and February and the amount of money collected dropped by €8.9 million on the previous billing cycle – down to €33.4 million from €42.3 million.

Irish Water could not give the exact percentage of customers who had paid their bills so far this year, but sources said the drop almost brought the revenue level back to where it had been when water charging began.

“While some customers began paying for the first time during bill cycle four, others did not pay, meaning overall revenue reduced during the fourth billing cycle,” the company statement said.

The first set of figures for the first three months of 2015 showed 44 per cent of homes had paid their bills, yielding €30.5 million.

First year of billing

The semi-State yesterday said 64 per cent “of customers paid water charges in the first year of billing”.

A spokeswoman for Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Simon Coveney, who now has responsibility for Irish Water, said he noted the figures but did not offer any further comment.

Water charges are to be suspended as a result of the recent minority government deal struck between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

Irish Water also said 8,000 customers cancelled their direct debit payments, which equals 4 per cent of people who pay through that method.

“In the same period (the fourth billing cycle) 5,850 customers, (3 per cent of all customers paying by direct debit) signed up to pay in this way. This trend resulted in an overall reduction of 2,000 or 1 per cent in the number of customers opting to pay by direct debit with 188,000 customers paying by direct debit at the end of March.

“Following the recent Government announcement of a suspension of domestic water charges with effect from the end of March 2016, charges for services provided apply up to that time and Irish Water is currently issuing bills to customers for services provided in January, February and March of this year,” the statement added.

“Irish Water customers remain liable for balances due on any bills issued and Irish Water continues to accept payment and to deal with any billing queries in relation to outstanding balances. Legislation suspending water charges is due before the Dáil in June.”

Referendum

A statement from the Right2Water campaign group said the figures “further illustrate the failure of the

Government’s water policy”.

“The campaign is now calling for a referendum to enshrine ownership of our water in public hands,” it said.

Labour's Alan Kelly, the former minister for the environment, again accused the Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil "axis" of "environmental treason" in scrapping water charges.

Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin said Irish Water had not “provided clarity on the number of customers who paid their water charges during the fourth billing cycle”.