MORE THAN 90,000 people have registered with Irish Water since changes to the charges regime were announced last month.

Public Expenditure and Reform Minister told the Dáil this afternoon that the figure takes the total number of households registered to over 935,000 with the government targeting one million registrations by Christmas.

The 90,000 figure works out at an average of over 4,000 people signing up every day in the 22 days since the government announced major changes to the charging regime.

Prior to that Irish Water said that on average 3,000 registrations packs were being returned every day.

The changes announced by Environment Minister Alan Kelly on 19 November included the introduction of two flat rates and a €100 rebate for every household in the country.

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This means a household of one adult will effectively pay €60 per year for water and a household of two or more adults will pay €160 annually. Charges have been capped at this level until the end of 2018.

Howlin revealed the figures at Leaders’ Questions where he faced calls from the Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald to either scrap water charges or call a general election in the wake of yesterday’s protests outside Leinster House.

The Minister pointed out that the new charges amount to 16 cent a day for single adult household or 40 cent a day for a house with two or more adults.