The Commission for Energy Regulation says it is looking to reassure the public over the introduction of water charges.

The CER published the cost of water this morning, with charging to begin tomorrow.

Householders will pay €2.44 per thousand litres of water, doubling to €4.88 to cover waste water as well.

Charging for all homes will be capped for nine months - which is longer than expected - while those on boil water notices for 24 hours will not be charged for water supply.

Under the CER plan all customers will have their total water charges capped at the unmetered or assessed charge for nine months - three months longer than initially planned.

If you are metered in the future and your consumption is less than the unmetered charge you will get a rebate of the difference after six months.

The assessed charge for water and waste water for a one adult household is €176 or €278 for two adults, with children deemed to be free.

Those with water unfit for human consumption - on a boil water notice for just 24 hours - will get a 100% discount on the water supply element of the charge, but will still have to pay for waste water if on a public sewerage system.

Overall the cost to customers for water supply is €2.44 per 1,000 litres, but you will pay double if you also have waste water services.

The CER says the average charge will be €238 per annum and it has cut the costs Irish Water can recover between now and the end of 2016 by more than 8% to just over €2bn.

Paul McGowan, Commissioner at the CER, spoke to Newstalk Breakfast this morning, and explained the main message of today's announcements:

He also described how the assessed charge and rebate systems will work for the first nine months:

Originally posted at 7:13am