Farmers and rural dwellers will be eligible for the €100 Water Conservation Grant. The payment, announced on Wednesday by Environment Minister Alan Kelly, will be available to people with private water and those on group schemes, in addition to those who have public water supply.

To be eligible, householders must register with Irish Water. The deadline was to be the end of this month, but it has now been extended to 16 January 2015.

The Department of Social Protection will engage directly with those eligible to seek necessary PPS numbers and bank details, before making payment in the second half of 2015. As the aim is to provide a single annual grant to all eligible households for their primary residences, it will not be available for second homes.

No change now for commercial water usage

The charging regime for non-domestic use will remain the same as applied under the relevant local authority, until reviewed by the CER, and local authorities are continuing to bill these customers as agents of Irish Water until a new regime is put in place.

The non-domestic charging varies from authority to authority, but normally involves a standing charge and a charge based on usage, largely resting on meters.

An allowance is applied for domestic usage and deducted from the metered usage of the premises, so that no payment is made on a non-domestic account for such usage.