Irish Water Protester Possible Landmark Court Case In June 2015

April 7, 2015

**Stephen Bennett will he get justice this time?**

Date set for Court Case

Stephen Bennett a political activist from Pearse Green Sallynoggin, Dublin is to stand trial in the Dublin District Court on June 17, 2015 by order of Judge Anthony Halpin . (see Irish Times , April 7, 2015). He has been charged under the Water Services Act 2007, for obstructing the company exercising its powers on October 21, 2014 at Villa Park Gardens, Dublin 7. The case can result in a €5000 fine as well as a possible 3 months in jail.

Case Ongoing Since December 2014 Could Set Precedent

This case has been ongoing since December 10, 2014 when Judge Halpin heard directions from the Director of Public Prosecution as to whether the case should be dealt with at district court level or go to the circuit. If it went to the circuit court there would be a maximum fine 0f €15m or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years, or both. The defense solicitor, at the time Stephen O'Mahony sought a court order to preserve any possible video footage contained on cameras belonging to Irish Water workers. Judge Halpin agreed to the request. The defence solicitor described the case as a test case which raised a lot of constitutional arguments and said that the case may open the floodgates further down the line. Judge Halpin said the complexity and magnitude of the case may necessitate engagement of counsel and he agreed to Mr O'Mahony's legal aid request. ( Irish Times December 10, 2014 )

An earlier and separate court case struck out

On March 2015, Judge Halpin acceded to Mr Bennett's solicitor Cahir O'Higgin's request to strike out the case against Stephen Bennett for obstructing Irish Water on November 4, 2014 at Villa Park Gardens, Cabra, Dublin The case was struck out because the state failed to disclose CCTV evidence which the judge had previously directed them to hand over. ( Sunday World March 25, 2015 )

Stephen Bennett with daughter Saoirse and friends during many campaigns including No Water Charges, Activist at Act For Palestine, Occupy Dame Street and Occupy the Dail going back to 2012

stephenbennett-budgetday protest2013.jpg

stephenbennett-march to mountjoyFeb21.jpg

11,000 Irish Water Customers Asked To Re-Submit Payment Details

April 7, 2015

Irish Water has confirmed that it has asked around 11,000 customers who submitted payment details in writing or over the phone to re-submit the information.
The company said that 9,000 customers who gave details of direct debit mandates over the phone were asked to re-submit them in writing, following concerns over data protection.

Another 2,000 customers who submitted payment details in writing were asked to do so again, because of what Irish Water described as "errors" in transposing customer details online.
The company said around 800,000 customers had registered in writing, far more than it had expected.
The utility will begin issuing the first quarterly bills to its 1.5m customers tomorrow.
The company has described the billing process as a significant task, and said it expects there will be errors in its database.
Staffing at a call centre in Cork has been increased to 750 to deal with customer queries during the initial billing period.

Staff at Irish Water and their customer service agents based at the Abtran call centre have been involved in a dry run on Irish Water's billing system for several weeks.

Today the system goes live and tonight the first 39,000 bills will be issued to customers across the country.
Billing is being rolled out on a phased basis over an eight-week period and during that time bills will be posted or emailed to every region of the country.
A total of 1.7m bills will be issued, including to those who are not customers of the new utility, such as to people on group water schemes.
RTE News April 7,2015

Buncrana Together
See our Boycott Campaign Article

It is interesting that RTE has reported the company as saying " around 800,00 customers had registered ". Last week it was 1.3 million or was it 1.5million.

Buncrana Together know that there is a lot of people who have registered that are opposed to Irish Water. They were coerced into signing Irish Water's registration form. We advise you to read our article Buncrana Against Irish Water Say Don't Interact With Irish Water.

It could be you... The first Irish Water bills will be dropping through letterboxes tomorrow

April 7, 2015

THE FIRST IRISH Water bills will begin dropping through letterboxes around the country from tomorrow.
The utility confirmed in a statement this morning that customers will start receiving them tomorrow as billing for domestic metering starts.
As part of the government’s massive climb-down on the new charging regime, announced last November, it was confirmed charging and billing would be postponed by three months.
The new, capped charging structure, started on 1 January. The bills will be sent out between now and June.
The company is expecting to face “challenges” as the process begins, Irish Water’s head of communications Elizabeth Arnett said in a statement – “particularly, for example, when we have incomplete customer
information or unregistered customers”.
“In these cases we may not have the right billing details and it’s possible that the details we have may not be 100% correct.”

Some 750 customer service staff, based at Abtran in Cork, will be dealing with customer queries over the next few months
The company admitted, at the end of last month, that it would be sending out hundreds of thousands of incorrect bills.

Speaking on RTÉ radio, Arnett said the bills were not being sent out on a “willy nilly” basis.
“When it comes from a new database, a new system, we accept that there will be issues with that and it’s part of the teething problems of a new utility.”

Here’s what Irish Water says customers will receive, from this week:
A bill for water services – bills will be metered or unmetered, depending on whether or not a customer has a meter. Charges will be €40 (or less) for a single adult household and €65 (or less) for a two adult household. Some households with a meter can beat this cap and pay even less.
    A detailed information booklet to explain the various charges.
    Details on how they can verify that the information on their bill is accurate.
    Details of how customers can get in touch with Irish Water if they need to update or amend any billing information.
Again, from the utility:
The first billing period covers 1 January to 31 March. Bills will be issued quarterly and will be based on the number of days in each quarter. Each quarter is not identical but the variation is small and customers will not pay more as a result.

The Journal April 7, 2015