Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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561. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if the water supply of persons living in areas in County Donegal which is often cut off due to burst pipes will still have to pay Irish Water a full service rate or will a system be in place to refund customers for times of non-existent service to their homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36679/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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With effect from 1 January 2014, Irish Water is responsible for public water services. The Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 provides that Irish Water can collect charges from its customers in receipt of water services provided by it. The Act also provides that responsibility for the independent economic regulation of the water sector is assigned to the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) and the CER has been given statutory responsibility for protecting the interests of customers.

The Act also requires that Irish Water prepare codes of practice on a range of matters, including standards in relation to the performance by Irish Water of its functions. Irish Water will also be required to prepare a code of practice on any matter considered necessary by the CER. Following public consultation, the CER has recently published its decision on the Irish Water customer handbook. These codes of practice form part of this handbook . The customer handbook sets out the obligations on Irish Water in relation to both planned and unplanned interruptions to public water supplies. Full details on the customer handbook are available on the CER website ()

Irish Water has established a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives. They may be contacted via email at oireachtasmembers@water.ieor by telephone on 1890 278 278.