Data from Irish Water shows that water usage in Laois dropped significantly when billing was introduced.
Average water use in Laois fell by more than 10 per cent in the months after the the State utility began to bill households for water, according to latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Irish Water began billing households in April 2015. Usage did not start to fall in Laois until after the bills began to be issued. In the three months before houses received their first bills usage rose but in no month after April did water use increase.
This downward trend continued for the rest of 2015 except for two summer months when the same average use figure was recorded.
By the end 2015 average daily water use was 385 litres per day, the figures show. The average daily use at the start of the year was 433 litres per day.
In March 2015 some 6.75 million litres of water were used by Laois households each day. By December this had dropped just below the 6 million litre mark.
The annual daily average use was 418 litres for the year. The total annual average household daily water usage in Laois was more than 6.5 million litres.
Across the border, in Offaly water usage increased despite billing while in nearby Kilkenny usage fell by just 6%.
However, both of these counties also had a lower number of meters than Laois.
According to the CSO figures, Laois recorded one of the highest rates of conservation around the country.
Figures show that water usage rose or stayed the same in several counties.
Nationally the average consumption per meter per day in 2015 varied from 274 litres to 383 litres depending on whether domestic water meters recording large consumption are included or excluded.
Water charges were suspended in 2016 after mass opposition to such charges and large public demonstrations across the country.
