Irish Water Administration

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 October 2014

Tuesday, 14 October 2014

Ceisteanna (293, 339)

Thomas P. Broughan

Ceist:

293. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the average processing times for Irish Water to deal with queries from citizens. [39460/14]

Éamon Ó Cuív

Ceist:

339. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the arrangements being made to ensure prompt replies from Uisce Éireann to queries raised by the public and public representatives; his views that it is satisfactory that no detailed replies have been received to queries raised by this Deputy dated 5 September 2014 and 17 of September 2014 despite reminders and also in view of the fact that the deadline for submitting Irish Water applications is approaching; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39213/14]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government

I propose to take Questions Nos. 293 and 339 together.

Since 1 January 2014 Irish Water is responsible for the delivery of water services and is responsible for dealing with queries.

I understand from Irish Water that queries from the general public to Irish Water are received in the form of phone calls, post, email or other online media format (twitter etc.).

Since the start of the year Irish Water has responded to 314,559 calls; the average answering time is 48 seconds and average length of calls is 7.2 minutes.

The target turnaround times for the other channels are 24 hours for email, 2 hours for tweets and 4 days for post. Irish Water’s actual turnaround for each channel at present is same day for tweets, 5 days for emails, and 4 days for post.  This current performance reflects the volume of contacts currently being handled since the recent publication of the first Water Charges Plan, the commencement of charges liability on October 1st and the ongoing application campaign with substantial daily responses and enquiries arising from the circa 2 million packs and correspondence mail-out.

Earlier in 2014 my Department asked Irish Water to put in place specific arrangements to address the queries which public representatives may have in relation to matters pertaining to the operation of water services under the new utility. Irish Water launched the Elected Representative Support Desk in January, and the dedicated email service [e-mail] in late February. Irish Water has responded to 4,700 individual queries from elected representatives on a range of issues. Irish Water will contact the Deputy directly in relation to any outstanding queries.