Contractors working for the State company, Bord Gáis, will begin installing equipment needed to fit the meters, which are central to charging householders for their water use.

Bord Gáis, which is responsible for establishing the State’s new water supply company, published notices yesterday seeking suppliers for boundary boxes and other equipment needed to install the meters. 

The move is the first significant step towards metering water supplies to about 1.05 million homes in the Republic or Ireland. 

The gas company is scheduled to complete the process of selecting the contractors by next March. They are scheduled to begin fitting the equipment in July and are expected to complete in December 2016.

The boxes will be connected to the stop-cock point, the junction between the mains and pipes supplying individual homes, which means they will be outside the properties. 

Boundary boxes are plastic cylinders designed to hold meters and connect them to the supplies that they will monitor.