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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:
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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Is Irish Water still a thing?
@Alan: Not for long.
The only way to get rid of Irish water is to get rid of FF/FG. And that is not going to happen any time soon
@Alan: Irish water was never a thing and never will be, FF and FG have proven themselves to be in conflict with the will of the people resulting in neither having enough seats to form an overall government, The future is good for Ireland without either of them at the controls.
I think we can all save our self congratulatory pats on the back until Irish Water has been dismantled. They are still there and still spending
@William Clay: While we probably we never get rid of zig and zag their influence is diminishing year by year. They will eventually join together to try and survive because there are no difference between them. As for iw it will be finished in the near future because any party that comes out and says they are keeping iw will be committing political suicide. This is why ff are sitting on the fence and letting fg take the flak. Sooner or later a final decision will be made on iw and thats when the shit will hit the fan.
Fluoride has been classified as a neurotoxin by the Lancet medical journal and these c*****ts are still putting it into our water supply !
There’s cyanide in apples what’s your point
Why would anyone even bother contacting a dead fake corrupt company over something that has absolutely nothing to do with actual water?
@Ronan Sexton: Real simple, if you want your water leak or any other water issue sorted, then you contact Irish Water
@John Kennedy: And they will tell you to contact your county council.
No they’ll generally fix it. But go ahead and believe what you want
Should you not contact the council? That’s who I’ve contacted in past.
@mursim: Just called my local council, they told me to contact Irish Water.
Every council has a rep from Irish water so when you contact the council all they will do is pass the details to this rep who contacts IW hq to deal with the problem. IW are responsible for all water mains and sewers in the country. Red thumbs coming but that’s the way it works
Or is it the other way round all IW get all the councils to do the same work they always done. IW only brought billing system and meters to the party thinking their bloated boat would float on a sea of public gravy
As someone who worked in this field til recently, I can categorically say that the Council have to tell you that you must now log your call with Irish water, Irish water will then eventually contact the Council to actually do the job! in the most circular and inefficient manner possible, it’s a mess.
@ Cathal even when their installation of water meters caused flooding in my area, I was still told to contact the DCC
@john Appleseed: Flooding is the responsibility of the Council, water is Irish Water
@ John Kennedy From poorly installed meters? That’s the sort of thinking that has Irish Water as a entity today.
@An_Beal_Bocht: Yep, arse about tit, sounds exactly the way its done despite every other way making more logical and financial sense.
There probably the only 4500 people still paying for water
What’s an Irish Water customer .?
A fool and their money…
So some people are still in favor of iw! Just as well the people stood up against it then otherwise our water services would belong to some multi millionaire more that likely living in Malta & the U.S. and lets not forget the lies our government repeatedly told us. ” Irish water will not be privatized” Its about all this government hasn’t sold off & we must at all costs never let it happen!
Nope no evidence it was or is to be privatised
Hard to believe there’s that many customers… Couple of multiple complainants there ☺
We were told ervia won the contract to set up iw because they were a fairly new company and had the experience, expertise,in setting up,new company and it would cut costs.more lies revealed.
Have a read about “RTÉ gets €180m in licence fees and with that comes a responsibility” that appears in the Southern Star written by one of our TD’s – Jim Daly is a Fine Gael TD for Cork South West and a member of the all-party Oireachtas committee on the future funding of water.
Political suicide?
@George Vladisavljevic: Totally delusional individual if he thinks rte were on the protesters side.
@George Vladisavljevic: According to Jim Daly we all broke the law, ye haw isn,t it fcuking great to have broke Enda,s Noonan,s Hogan,s and O, Briens make up law that they thought that would make them a fortune.
They provide(d) a service?
So people choose not to bother paying for a service but yet have the cheek to complain about it. Now that makes perfect sense!
Yes, but they weren’t paying for a service, they were paying a corrupt fake billing company that provides no service of any kind except posting out junk mail.
R.i.p to Irish water and fck you hogan and Kelly for threatening the electorate.
even though it’s free they should fix it. free water free houses free food is everyone’s right
@Patrick Gough: So since when has water been free, Patrick?? Since when have people been looking for free water??? Show people looking for free houses??
home sweet home and aaa/pbp want free water and free houses. I am happy to pay for what I use be it food beer or water. am I unique?
@Patrick Gough:
As things stand we are paying for water already, if you prefer to pay twice that is you perogative but why should you insist on everybody paying twice just because you do?
As for housing I have never seen any organisation looking for free housing but if you could show people a link it would enlighten us
He won’t because he can’t. He really should get off his knees and buckle up Alan Kelly’s pants and have some dignity for himself.
There was a100 thousand complaints a few Saturday’s last year
never mind the spin. they bought some of the most advanced IT infrastructure available. The ESB and other billing companies would be jealous. There was never a need for it. They wasted money and transfered many of there fat cats over from bord gas to IW.
Embarrassed as a Dubliner that we have a Eurosceptic MEP like Boylan.
Contradiction in terms?
have your say