Mayo IFA support bid to scrap multiple water meter charges on farms

MAYO IFA is backing local councillors in their bid to have multiple water meter charges on farms axed.

Officers from Mayo IFA, including national environment chairman Paul O’Brien, met with members of Mayo County Council to show their support for the council's national lead on lobbying for a single customer charge by Irish Water in their revised national billing system.

IFA county chairman Jarlath Walsh told councillors that farmers are a large user of water and changes made to the system over many years have left farmer customers at a huge disadvantage.

The IFA, he said, were looking for a single customer charge instead of the multiple meter charge.

This has a much more significant implication in the west of Ireland as fragmented farms are more numerous.

Paul O’Brien told the meeting that in August 2018, IFA made a submission to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) which highlighted how the proposal to introduce a tariff for non-domestic customers on a per connection basis would add a significant cost and administration burden on farm businesses.

He went on to say that IFA also said that fragmentation is common place on farms around the country with an average of 3.9 parcels in the west compared to 3.5 across the whole country.

Mr. O’ Brien proposed that similar to electricity charges, water should be linked to a customer’s Water Reference Number (WPRN) and not each connection.