Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Updated at 7pm
WATER METERING WON’T be stopping in Dublin this week, Irish Water says — although the utility has confirmed that a number of workers employed by contractor GMC Sierrra have been put on protective notice.
The issue has been in the news this week after Sinn Féin’s Brian Stanley said he had learned that meter installation in the capital would be brought to a halt by Friday.
Contractors have been forced to halt their work at dozens of sites – particularly on the northside of Dublin – since metering began early last year, as a result of series of rolling protests by anti-charges groups.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie this afternoon in a live Q&A, the contentious semi-state’s head of communications Elizabeth Arnett insisted there was no ‘pull-out’ from the city.
“Most people know that some metering sites around the country have been targeted for protest,” Arnett said.
On occasion, or from time to time, our contractors will suspend works on certain work-sites as much for their health and safety as the members of the public.
In relation to the current issue with GMC Sierra she that while “no-one has lost their job yet” a number of workers have been put on protective notice “in response to some areas where the workload or where the suspension of works in some areas means that that’s an appropriate step for them”.
“No, not at all,” Arnett said, when asked if there was a large scale pull-out from the city by metering contractors…
Arnett was here for half an hour to answer readers’ questions on everything from registration deadlines and burst pipes to debt collectors and those “no contract, no consent” protests.
More clips from the interview will be posted in the coming days – but here’s the whole thing (below) for the moment…
Thanks to everyone who sent questions – we tried to get through as many as possible but there were tonnes we just couldn’t fit in.
That said, she’s promised to come back in April – as the bills begin to arrive – to answer more of them…
Contacting Irish Water:
Finally, our reporter Aoife Barry liveblogged the whole Q&A as it happened — check below for the detail…
If you have a question about Irish Water, you’ve come to the right place. Elizabeth Arnett is in the building and we’re going to be putting your queries about all things water charges to her.
Want to join in? Comment below, email daragh@thejournal.ie or tweet us
I’m Aoife and I’ll be liveblogging the whole thing – so even if you can’t watch the video, you can stay tuned into our updates.
Health and safety of workers has been an issue, says Arnett. They have four major contractors.
A number of workers were put on protective notice in response to suspension of work in some areas, she acknowledged, but no one has lost their job.
From time to time, they do suspend work for health and safety reasons – but to suggest it’s a wide scale curtailment is not the case.
Each of the regions work independently, and work is continuing on all of them, says Arnett.
Their monthly target for installation is 27,000 meters a month. “We don’t want to put anybody’s health and safety at risk,” says Arnett. But if there are issues on the street, they will suspend works.
Here’s yesterday’s article on Irish Water rubbishing water meter installation claims.
Is some of our money being spent on security?
“We certainly are not paying for security,” says Arnett. But they are engaging with contractors.
Irish Water is getting ready for billing customers for domestic services, which means confirming details for households – and these details (or lack thereof) could affect your water bill.
Here’s why:
They’re preparing for billing in April, so they want as much info as they can get – there’s still time to get in touch, but if you haven’t registered with Irish Water yet, Arnett says it will take less than five minutes.
If you don’t get your details in? You could get hit with a higher charge.
There will be a cutoff for the conservation grant though, probably later in the summer.
“We don’t want people getting bills they shouldn’t get. We don’t want people getting bills that are too high,” says Arnett.
People have been asking about penalties. What does Irish Water have to say about that?
The penalties would only start kicking in in a year’s time. It’s “very early” to be talking about debt collectors.
“Our starting point is that there is a high compliance in terms of payment of charges,” says Arnett.
“It’s our job to make sure it is easy and convenient for people to engage with us.”
How many people have been in touch with Irish Water?
“We have 1.223million households that have responded already, and almost a million are Irish Water customers,” says Arnett, calling it a “good response”.
What about packs saying ‘no contract, no consent’ or with other protest slogans? Daragh asks what Irish Water has to say about that.
Less than 15,000 have come back in that respect and less than 20,000 have come back unanswered, says Arnett:
In terms of the legal standing of it, the point to make here is the Oireachtas passed legislation to make water charges the law of the land. It’s not a discretionary charge. It’s not a contract people are entering into, because it’s legislation.
Also – it could be June before you get your first bill. And you’ll be billed every quarter.
Renting?
The occupier is considered the resident of a house. Irish Water is contacting landlords directly to say “come forward and talk to us and we’ll make sure the occupier of your property is the person we engage with going forward”, Arnett tells us.
Are you a landlord? Talk to the tenant first – and get in touch with Irish Water if you want more info.
As it stands, the landlord is liable unless an occupier says they’re living there and will deal with the bill. The landlord can give Irish Water the occupier’s name so they can be contacted.
Is there a cap on charges? Arnett says yes.
You’ll pay no more than €160 for a single adult and no more than €260 two adults or more.
If you have a meter outside your house and are using less water, you will automatically be charged less than the relevant cap.
About a third of the households would come in under the cap, without any change to their behaviour, says Arnett.
Readers’ questions now…
A question from a landlord – what’s the situation with current tenants and if they don’t pay?
The main thing is the tenant is responsible for the charge. If they leave, Irish Water needs to know about this change.
They will pursue the debt with whoever is responsible, ie the tenant.
That’s how it stands at the moment.
What about if there are multiple tenants?
You nominate who is the person whose name will go on the bill, they pay the conservation grant.
You put the same arrangement in place as other utility bills, says Arnett.
Another reader’s question, this time about security firms at water metering site.
“It’s not that there is security provided on site, per se, it’s that there is additional security on site to gather evidence [for court cases],” says Arnett.
There were recent photos of security workers filming at an Irish Water protest, who were wearing Irish Water bibs, with their face covered. What does Irish Water have to say about that?
“Wearing an Irish Water bib and being from Irish Water are not the same thing,” says Arnett. She says face covering is not something that is acceptable for Irish Water.
Another reader question, about unfinished estates.
In principle, Irish Water will take an unfinished estate as part of the public network if it is in a reasonable state.
The current process is if the infrastructure doesn’t require that Irish Water go in and spend money on it, they will take it in charge. But if there are issues such as need for repair, it’s not so straightforward.
It’s particularly difficult when there is a private waste water treatment plant, says Arnett.
They take it on a case-by-case basis.
One reader wants to know about apartment blocks. Irish Water reckons it will do about 50,000 apartments as part of its metering programme.
What about if you haven’t received a pack and haven’t registered? Get in touch, says Arnett.
Head of Irish Water, John Tierney, hasn’t been in the media much of late.
Why? He is “running the business” says Arnett – it’s her job to go out and talk to the media.
That’s all for our livestream question and answers with Elizabeth Arnett, head of communications for Irish Water.
Thanks for all your questions and comments for our reporter Daragh Brophy, and do keep an eye out for our future Hotseat interviews.
I’ll correct the headline ” Eir to add 200,000 disappointed and frustrated customers”
@Fergus Murphy: 2.3MBS measured this morning on my Eir internet line. I live in a town and don’t have fibre. I called them recently to find out when high speed internet will be available. The guy on the phone told me to contact my local TD as it would speed things up.
One useless waster advising me to contact another useless waster.
@Fergus Murphy: for sure, unless 1.2 or less usually is acceptable.
@David Corrigan: actually, my estate had a fibre cabinet installed and sat there for 6 months which hadn’t gone live. Emailed all my local representatives, and within 2 weeks it had gone live. You’d be surprised how effective a well worded email is.
@David Corrigan: try get Starlink. I got it in a few weeks ago. Getting up to 300mbps.
@neuromancer: well-worded
@Fergus Murphy: So true Their customer service is appalling.
@David Corrigan: The Eir guy may have a point! In the town I live in, one estate suddenly received Fibre To The Home from Eir earlier this year (and the rest of the town are still waiting and will be for a while). It turns out it was because a TD lives in it and that TD reached out to Eir and, voila!
@P.S. I Hate You: you must work for starlink. €500 for hardware and €61 shipping. Then €100 a month subscription. To sign up today I have to pay €561.
As per starlink’s own website “During beta, users can expect to see data speeds vary from 50Mb/s to 150Mb/s”
So where are you getting 300mps?, starink is satellite broadband which doesn’t come down at 300mps, if it did the starlink website would most definitely say it.
@Fergus Murphy: wouldn’t touch them EVER again – not even with a barge pole……
@Paul Quirke: Glad you pointed that out, now everyone can rest tonight.
@Mark Dit: is he telling porkies??
@Mark Dit: im getting over 300mbps on occassion never goes below 100mbps. I got it cause it’s my only option. I use ookla for my speed tests. better to under promise and over deliver. I’m happy with my service that’s the main thing.
@Mark Dit: here is a copy of my speed results.
https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/2EG4HX2P3O13/screenshot-20210716-230722-speedtest.jpg
Still wouldn’t go near them in a million years after the horror stories iv heard about their customer service.
@Chris Forde: To be fair its not a bad service problems arise when you have to contact them for any issues
@Chris Forde: and all true.
@Chris Forde: yes their customer service was abysmal could be an hour on hold. They seemed to have overhauled it in last couple of months after complaints in Dail. Recently onto them, through to someone within 5 minutes.
Avoid Eir at all costs.
They need to invest in their existing products and customer service department. Absolute shambles. I’ll never deal with them again after my previous experiences.
Ours is still painfully slow and we are 5 miles from O’Connell St. No fibre here.
Great free advertising for Eir. Just don’t get a mobile phone on that network.
@Shane McGrath: why not Shane ? I’m with them a number of years and I’ve been many places around Ireland and had very few coverage black spots I’ve had people with other networks and they’ve had issues. And if I’m a place that has bad coverage but has wifi I can use wifi calling. I’d bet this article was about other service providers people on here would still be moaning. IT’s because Eir made mistakes they’ve rectified some of them like the customer service depart very little waiting now but other issues still exist.
@Shane McGrath: What they did to Meteor’s service is criminal.
You must not use your mobile often or have not needed customer service.
@Contrary Mary: get if the train in Dublin 5 abs signal drops to one bar, if people call you they get voicemail. Was with them for two weeks. Horrendous.
@Contrary Mary: sorry Mary just getting back to you now I was on the phone. But yes I’m on the phone a lot every day in various locations and a lot of the time I have 4G coverage and yes I was onto customer service last week to renew my broadband/mobile contract and only waited less than 5 mins to be connected. Years ago I was with VF mobile only that was shocking 1 bar 3G at home go 1km up the road very little coverage and I’m in Wexford town plus I was paying a scaldy bill too. I’m also fully aware of how networks operate in terms of coverage and I know all the cell towers around me.
@: you 100 percent are sitting in an eir office. I don’t think anyone believes that
@Mark Dit: I’m definitely not sat in an Eir office but I am sat in my office editing photos as per my profession and just tested my broadband speed 454.2 download 33.3 upload and full 2 bars of 4G indoors closest mast to me is 3km in an industrial park. So I’ve no issues never have.
Only a matter of a quick phone call to them and they’ll sort it. Sure sure sure!!!!
@Paul Bracken: Took me 3 phone calls to cancel a service I never received. Swear to god the 3rd phone call to them I was in Cyprus standing on my hotel balcony and according to the guy on the phone I was lying. Eirs installation team are at my address as we spoke and they had me sign there tablet to confirm delivery and installation of the router he can see this on there “live” so I can’t cancel as I’m obviously happy with the service. It took a trip to the hotel reception and a chat with the receptionist for the eir customer service team to accept I was infact in Cyprus. Absolute joke of a company.
@Roy Dowling: a55hole company
The fibre/broadband network is so poor. Parents live in north cork near a big town and the broadband fails every second day because the line in damaged. Eir did nothing despite multiple complaints over 2 years. They’re now using 4g for the house.
@Ed Quinlan: try Starlink
@P.S. I Hate You: you must work for starlink. €500 for hardware and €61 shipping. Then €100 a month subscription. To sign up today I have to pay €561.
As per starlink’s own website “During beta, users can expect to see data speeds vary from 50Mb/s to 150Mb/s”
So where are you getting 300mps?, starink is satellite broadband which doesn’t come down at 300mps, if it did the starlink website would most definitely say it and not 150mps
@Mark Dit: Starlink is a game changer, got mine nearly 2 weeks ago, DL speed of 275 MBs. Fed up of switching providers only to be let down time and again.
@Will Bourke: spot on mate. Worth noting the pricing will come down and speeds will increase when the beta phase is completed.
@Ed Quinlan: I have no probs with Eir at all and have my phone tv and broadband package.
Seems a reasonable deal as all works well.
Just wish I could get fibre as my speeds vary between 38 and 42mb.
Ironically, the Google API Key for the map on their fibrerollout.ie website has been expired for over a week now, so the maps won’t load – maybe they should call someone who knows IT?
They can’t manage what they have ffs.
Still trying to charge me for stuff a canceled a year ago
@Lets be real: Same hear despite a half a dozen phone calls and a Twitter conversation that assured me my old account was closed.
@Lets be real: same here
A business friend what’s just started up his own VR gaming business, asked Eir to supply broadband. “No problem. We can be with you in possibly two months.”
Friend said “No Thanks.”. He then rang “Three” …They set him up in THREE days with 600mb per sec’ broadband for his business. #EnoughSaid.
@Jeff Rudd: 3 are just another a55hole company to avoid….
@Shane McGrath: Possibly. Credit where due, they were far easier to accommodate a new business.
Rang Eir twice last month about adding fibre broadband. Both operators didn’t know. One system saying they could another system saying they couldn’t. Promised they would get back to me with a definite. I won’t give anybody any guesses as to whether they did or not
Live in Drogheda. The nation’s official biggest town. No service here on one complete side and absolutely dire service on the other. Asked Eir when it’s possible to avail of a decent updated service. The reply was “Maybe next year – if you are lucky!”.
@Jeff Rudd: Cheek of them
I’m getting 1.9mb yet Eir ring and try to sell me some high speed offer that’s not available. Pure false advertising and misleading customers is all there good at. I doubt other providers are any different
They cant look after theircexisting customers…. Customer Service .. zero
Had an Eir repair guy out recently after god alone knows how many phonecalls, told me not to bother renewing my contract with them as they’re absolutely useless, so I going to heed his advice, thanks Eir.
Has the ‘Air’ (pun ntended) of setting themselves up for another sale. Build up the connections on the books to inflate the value of the company.
I doubt there is another company in Ireland that has been pillaged as much as them through since privatisation.
I cant write what I would like too about them suffice to say they have cherry picked all the good locations and left the hard stuff to the public purse to pay for. In time honoured tradition this contract to complete the network had being given to a mate who has no experience in broadband networks. Enough said or the Journal wont print this.
On the one hand this is good news because I’m on gigabit with virgin media and they are the only provider who service my estate with those speeds and competition is a good thing. On the other hand its Eir and I’ve heard too many horror stories to give them any serious consideration.
Still, at least now I might be able to threaten to leave virgin when my contract is up for renewal. So, yay I guess?
@Ribeard Ó Fiachna:
I wouldn’t believe a word EIR say.
When there were discussions regarding the National Broadband tender being awarded all of a sudden they could supply a service despite them pulling out of the tendering process previously. They have been owned by so many owners that have only been interested in making a quick buck and no doubt the current owners are trying to do the same.
We have all the products and have only had a problem once, cable fault outside not bad for 20 years. 1901 was problematic however.
Will never get here in my lifetime…
Guys, don’t forget that it’s only Eircom wearing a different T-shirt. Just as b ad, just as un reliable, just as use less as ever. Does a leopard ever really change its spots. Eir, Let’s make possible … Line Up Suckers …..
@Michael Fitzpatrick: and where else can you get fibre from outside of siro which has much less coverage.
I’m waiting 7 weeks for my connection and still no confirmation of date
Have eir gigabit and its excellent apart from the appealing customer service. Can’t fault their loyalty team tho, if you are a long term customer, they treat you well. Eir often gets a negative image from non fibre customers ( was once part of the gang) but their fibre extreme offering is excellent for advanced users
@Dawid Grzybowski: unfortunately not available everywhere or i would switch today. Ince it’s up and running no customer service contact needed
I moved from Eir to Virgin 15 or 20 years ago due to their abysmally bad customer care, slow speeds, high prices and ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude. It would take a lot for me to move back
Wish they would connect the older apartment buildings built like 20 years ago so that there is a cheaper alternative to virgin. Even that other service which uses the ESB network is cheaper but they won’t go into areas where there is already a fast connection(cable).
do my house pleeeeeeeeeease
Signed up with Eurona Arden here in Galway… 500mb speeds and a low price. Rural location. Cousin signed up in Monaghan too last week
have your say