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Niall Carson
h2 woah
Over 4,500 complaints made to Irish Water in three months over poor service
Some of the main issues concerned water quality and customer service.
THERE WERE OVER 4,500 complaints made to Irish water by customers in the last three months of the year, a new report has revealed.
In its latest publication, the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) said most of the issues related to people not getting water or that there were leaks in their system.
According to the CER, Irish Water is required to respond to a customer complaint within five working days with a resolution or a plan outlining the steps required to achieve a resolution. The top five issues included:
- No water
- Leaking from boundary box
- Timeliness of response
- Low pressure
- Water quality
Complaints to the contentious utility have decreased over time, however.
In the preceding six months, there were 15,000 issues.
And this afternoon. Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan has warned the EU to “butt-out” of Irish affairs until Environment Minister Simon Coveney submits the Government’s water plan to Brussels.
She said: “What the commissioner has to do if he is to fulfill his role is he has to wait until Ireland submits its plan. It won’t be ready, according to Simon Coveney, until late 2017.
“Until that point, the commissioner should not be making any point about the Irish situation, just like he shouldn’t make a comment about any other member states.
He needs to butt-out and stop meddling its a democratic process. He needs to remain silent.
A statement from Irish Water this evening read: “The Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) has acknowledged that Irish water are continuing to improve our commitment to good customer service. Over 90% of Irish Water’s Customer Handbook requirements, which have been agreed with the CER, have now been implemented. This progress is reflected in the decrease in number of customer complaints received by Irish Water.”
Earlier this week. Michael McNicholas has defended Irish Water’s €70 million spend on consultants, insisting they were “international experts”.
Speaking before the Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services, he said there is “a perception out there” that money was squandered on consultants, adding: “That is absolutely not the case.”
McNicholas said the “international experts” were integral to the establishment of Irish Water. The Ervia boss said the money was spent on software and computer system experts needed to set up the national utility.
He said the setup of Irish Water cost €100 million less than any other utility in other countries.
With reporting by Christina Finn
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