Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 364: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if he will request the Electricity Supply Board to facilitate Members with a help-line telephone number for ESB queries in view of the difficulty consumers have in contacting the ESB since offices have closed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10208/06]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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Customer service is, in the first instance, a matter for ESB and not one in which I have a function. I have made inquiries and understand that the position is as follows. ESB operates a national customer contact centre that deals with all customer queries from any of its 1.8 million customers. In 2005, a huge volume increase occurred in calls to the NCCC, driven by a number of factors including implementation of new systems to facilitate electricity market opening. This had a negative impact on call-answering performance and ESB accepts that customers did experience delays in contacting the company. However, steps have now been taken to address this and calls are now being answered on a much more timely basis and in line with industry norms. As with all utility call centres, there may be certain times when customers experience delays contacting the ESB. Following the improvements ESB has implemented, it is anticipated that these will be limited to isolated events such as widespread storms or forced outages. ESB advises that a dedicated hotline should not be necessary and that in general all customers should at this point be able to get through to the NCCC on a timely basis.