Irish Water has this week begun the process to take in charge the administration of 16,703 business customer accounts in County Cork.

The change will see responsibility for account administration for existing business customers in County Cork move to Irish Water from Local Authorities.

Charges for business customers, credit terms and the frequency of billing will remain unchanged while this transition is taking place.

Business customers in Co Cork will now have a single point of customer contact for all queries in relation to water supply, wastewater treatment and business account management.

Irish Water will contact all 16,703 business customers and other affected groups in Co Cork directly, over the coming weeks. Bills will be issued from Irish Water directly, as they fall due, from this month onwards.

Irish Water took over responsibility for providing public water services to business customers in January 2014. Before this, Local Authorities billed businesses for water services provided to them and they have continued to issue bills on behalf of Irish Water on an interim basis since then.

Irish Water is now assuming responsibility for business billing administration as part of the overall transition of water services provision from Local Authorities.

Irish Water began the process of billing transfer on a phased basis in mid-July and to date administration for 26 counties including Kerry, Waterford, Tipperary and Wicklow, as well as Cork city, have successfully been transferred to the utility.

Prior to bills being issued, Irish Water will contact customers directly in each county to explain what is happening.

Any customer with a query in relation to the process can contact Irish Water on 1850 778 778 or 01 707 2827.

In Co Cork, Irish Water is currently progressing work on a number of key water infrastructure projects. In addition to these projects, it is carrying out an ongoing programme of water main rehabilitation throughout the county, including an investment of €600,000 to upgrade the water supply scheme in Kilworth, along with an investment of €3.8 million to replace 27.2km of mains in the Clonakilty Water Supply Scheme.