Speaking to a select group of NGOs and other stakeholders, the Tánaiste announced: "A single-adult household will pay €160 a year, and qualify for a €100 payment in the shape of a Water Conservation Grant from the Department of Social Protection. In other words, the net bill for a single adult household will be just €60 a year, or approximately €1.15 a week.

"All other households will pay €260 a year, and qualify for the same €100 water support payment. This means their net bill will be €160 a year, or approximately €3 a week. Those capped charges are being introduced until the end of 2018, and the legislation being introduced will provide that a further cap, that will be equally affordable, will be introduced from 2019 on. So €1.15 a week for a single-adult household. And a little over €3 a week for all other households. 

"In addition, charging won't begin until January, to allow Irish Water and the Irish people sufficient time to complete the registration process. This means no householder will see a bill before April."

Speaking after the announcement, Active Retirement Ireland CEO Maureen Kavanagh said, "While we welcome an end to the uncertainty over how much water will cost, the €160 bill a pensioner living alone will receive, even when offset by the new water conservation grant of €100, will erode most of the recent increase in the living alone allowance; placing pensioners back where they were before Budget 2015, and far worse off than they were in 2008."

The Department of Social Protection will be administering the Water Conservation Grant of €100. No PPS numbers will be collected by Irish Water. Any PPS numbers collected by Irish Water to date will be deleted from their system.

For full details of the changes, click here.

For frequently asked questions, click here.