Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act, 1997

Removal of power of local authorities to make charges for supply of water for domestic purposes, etc.

12.—(1) In this section “section 65A of the 1878 Act” means section 65A of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878 , as inserted by section 7 of the Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act, 1962 , and amended by section 8 of the Local Government (Financial Provisions) (No. 2) Act, 1983 , and sections 2 and 3 of the Local Government (Delimitation of Water Supply Disconnection Powers) Act, 1995 .

(2) Section 65A of the 1878 Act is hereby amended by—

(a) the substitution of the following subsections for subsections (1), (1A) and (1B):

“(1) A sanitary authority may make charges for water supplied, whether within or outside their functional area, by them, but after the 31st day of December, 1996, a sanitary authority may not make a charge for a supply by them of water for domestic purposes.

(1A) Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall be construed as preventing a sanitary authority from recovering a charge made by them, on or before the 31st day of December, 1996, for a supply by them of water after that date.”;

(b) the substitution in subsection (11) of “to a dwelling house or a group water supply scheme” for “whether the supply is or is not to a dwelling house”;

(c) the addition to subsection (11), after subparagraph (e), of the following subparagraph:

“(f) a supply to a sanitary authority.”;

(d) the addition, after subsection (11), of the following subsections:

“(12) Where water supplied by a sanitary authority constitutes, or may constitute, a supply for domestic and other purposes, a sanitary authority may make such estimation, as they consider reasonable, of the proportion of that supply likely to be used for domestic purposes and may have regard to any such estimation in determining whether, and on what basis, to make a charge for a supply of water under this section.

(13) In this section—

‘dwelling house’ means a building or part of a building used by a person as his or her place of private residence (whether as his or her principal place of such residence or not) and includes accommodation provided in such a residence to one or more students to enable them to pursue their studies but does not include any part of a building used for the provision, for the purposes of reward, with a view to profit or otherwise in the course of business, of accommodation, including self-catering accommodation, (other than accommodation provided in a place of private residence aforesaid to one or more students for the purposes aforesaid) unless the person to whom the accommodation is so provided uses the accommodation as his or her principal place of private residence;

‘group water supply scheme’ means a scheme whereby there is provided a private supply of water by means of a common or shared source of supply and distribution system.”.

(3) Section 4 of the Local Government (Financial Provisions) (No. 2) Act, 1983 , is hereby amended by the substitution of the following subsections for subsection (1):

“(1) Section 2 of this Act shall not apply to any service—

(a) consisting of the supply by a local authority, after the 31st day of December, 1996, of water for domestic purposes or the disposal by it of domestic sewage,

or

(b) which for the time being stands specified in an order made by the Minister under subsection (2) of this section.

(1A) Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall be construed as preventing a local authority from recovering a charge made by it, on or before the 31st day of December, 1996, for a disposal by it of domestic sewage after that date.

(1B) The reference to the supply of water for domestic purposes in subsection (1) of this section shall be construed in accordance with section 65A (11) of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878 , as amended by the Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act, 1997.”.