Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 July 2014
497. Deputy Michael McNamara asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if Irish Water will develop an effective communications strategy on swift customer notification of supply interruptions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31344/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraIrish Water has confirmed to my Department that it has a robust communications strategy in place to deal with supply interruptions, both planned and unplanned.
I am informed that, since April 2014, Irish Water, under the Service Level Agreements negotiated with local authorities, is the main point of contact for queries on supply outages and it organises for the relevant local authority to respond. For major incidents, operational communications on the incident continue to be provided by the relevant local authority through existing communications channels. Centrally, Irish Water had a Crisis Management Team working with each affected local authority which ensures regular updates to local radio stations, customers and local representatives on the evolving position in the area, in line with the existing communications protocols in that local authority.
Irish Water has confirmed to my Department that it has established a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives. The team can be contacted via email to oireachtasmembers@water.ie or by telephone on 1890 278 278.
