Irish Water is set to commence a programme of works to replace 4,200 business water meters in the Galway area during the month of December.
Customers who will be receiving the replacement meter have already been notified by letter. The new meters have drive-by technology which allows for faster and more frequent meter readings resulting in fewer estimated bills being issued.
In addition, the new meters will also provide data which will assist Irish Water in identifying potential leaks at a business premises.
A pilot programme to replace 100 business water meters in the same locations (25 per local authority area ) was successfully completed within one week in November with no significant issues reported.
This programme will be extended to a Regional Meter Replacement Programme in the New Year and further details will be announced as the project is ready to be rolled out.
Irish Water would like to stress that there is no charge to customers for the installation of the new meters which should ultimately provide them with a more accurate bill for their water usage.
Water supply to businesses will be temporarily shut-off for approximately 15 minutes while the water meter is being replaced, however Irish Water will endeavour to keep the length of this water outage to a minimum. Businesses will receive a reminder notification at least two days before the work is scheduled to begin and the project team will speak to the customer directly before interrupting supply.
Irish Water has completed the process of taking in charge the administration of business customer accounts. The change saw responsibility for account administration for existing business customers move to Irish Water from Local Authorities.
Business customers now have a single point of customer contact for all queries in relation to water supply, wastewater treatment and business account management.
Irish Water took over responsibility for providing public water services to business customers in January 2014. Before this, Local Authorities billed businesses for water services provided to them and they have continued to issue bills on behalf of Irish Water on an interim basis since then. Irish Water has now assumed responsibility for business billing administration as part of the overall transition of water services provision from Local Authorities.
