Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 November 2014
218. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide a detailed report in tabular form broken down by local authority areas on the number of households that have registered completed and returned the Irish Water packs with Irish Water. [43570/14]
View answer219. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the number of households that have registered with Irish Water but are not eligible to pay. [43571/14]
View answer225. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the number of Irish Water application packs received by Irish Water that were left blank by the sender; and the number that had incomplete information. [43605/14]
View answer226. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the percentage of Irish Water application packs issued that have been returned; the percentage of those returned that contained no PPS number; the percentage that have been returned blank; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43607/14]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 218, 219, 225 and 226 together.
Irish Water is in the process of compiling the relevant data to ensure that customers can be billed accurately based on the tariff structure approved by the CER. Irish Water has sent validation packs to approximately 2 million households, which refer to the effective charging date and the fact that billing for domestic customers in receipt of public water services will start in January 2015. It is expected that some 23 % of households will respond indicating that they are not customers of Irish Water by virtue of the fact that they are not connected to public water or waste water systems.
Irish Water has informed my Department that as of 12 November 2014, it had received in excess of 849,000 responses . My Department does not have a breakdown on a local authority basis nor does it have any information on the number of application packs that have been returned incomplete.
Irish Water has established a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives and has contacted all Oireachtas members to provide details of an improved level of service which it is aiming to provide. The team can be contacted via email to oireachtasmembers@water.ie or by telephone on a new dedicated number, 1890 578 578.
