A Monaghan councillor has raised his concerns over what he has descried as "extortionate" water connection fees that are being charged to local families building their first home. According to Cllr Pauric Clerkin, one family were charged €17,000 for a connection fee, however when he queried this with a local contractor he was told that they would be able to carry out these works at a "fraction of the cost" but were unable to do so.
When contacted by Cllr Clerkin about this, Uisce Eireann said that this was in legislation handed down by the department of housing. As a result Cllr Clerkin is calling on the department of housing to investigate this issue which isn't just happening in Co Monaghan but right across the country.
Speaking to Northern Sound, Cllr Clerkin has called on the Minister for Housing to look into this problem and rectify it urgently; "In this case you've got a young family who have saved and applied for a mortgage and built their own home and now they are met with this extra charge at the end of it that they weren’t expecting. I think in this day and age the minister for housing needs to look into this and rectify this matter because if we're trying to help people get on the property market we can't be charging them these kind of prices for water connection fees because it's just not acceptable in this day and age."
