Ms Suzanne Collins:

On communications, as Mr. Grant has specified, during a crisis there is always a challenge associated with getting the information. The crews were out on the ground. Sometimes the leaks were much more complex than expected. In Gorey, for example, there was a very significant leak that left approximately 10,000 people without any water at all. It turned out it was in a forest so the crew had to cut down trees and get JCBs out. With the best of intentions, one wants to be able to provide as much information and as accurately as one can. Sometimes, however, the complexity is discovered only when people are on the ground. In Dublin, between the local authorities and contractors we had, at the maximum, approximately 50 crews out finding the leaks and fixing them. It is absolutely the case that there was hardship. The crews were trying to find and fix the biggest leaks first but the information is only as good as our assessment at the time. We do try to get out as much as we can.

The other significant challenge was the network itself. As Mr. Grant specified, when we put into place the reductions and reduced the pressure, we found people were again out of water in some areas on higher ground, at the extremities of the networks or in apartment blocks where the pumps might not have been working sufficiently. When customers and local representatives were telling us people were very affected in various areas, we were able to use that information, assess it and make adjustments where the reductions were occurring. Again, we were trying to communicate this.

Bearing in mind that we are talking a lot about leaks and pipework, the size and scale of the challenge we face is such that people do not realise what the issue is until there is a problem. They probably should not realise it until there is a problem. For us to communicate to them the size and scale of the problem is a real challenge for us. We have a very small team. There are four of us across the whole country. At times of crisis, hundreds of telephone calls come in. Regional media, in particular, are invaluable at getting the message out, as are local elected representatives, who use their own networks, and other stakeholder groups on the ground. We try to leverage everyone we can. We are very grateful for all the support we get in getting the information out. In every crisis, we have learned lessons. The first was in Stalleen. We got feedback that we were not getting information out quick enough digitally. We now have an out-of-hours emergency roster for Twitter and for updating our website. We are building more collateral and producing more information in different formats. We are trying to use whatever we can to get the information out as quickly as possible and as accurately as possible.