Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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293. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the average processing times for Irish Water to deal with queries from citizens. [39460/14]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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339. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the arrangements being made to ensure prompt replies from Uisce Éireann to queries raised by the public and public representatives; his views that it is satisfactory that no detailed replies have been received to queries raised by this Deputy dated 5 September 2014 and 17 of September 2014 despite reminders and also in view of the fact that the deadline for submitting Irish Water applications is approaching; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39213/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 293 and 339 together.

Since 1 January 2014 Irish Water is responsible for the delivery of water services and is responsible for dealing with queries.

I understand from Irish Water that queries from the general public to Irish Water are received in the form of phone calls, post, email or other online media format (twitter etc.).

Since the start of the year Irish Water has responded to 314,559 calls; the average answering time is 48 seconds and average length of calls is 7.2 minutes.

The target turnaround times for the other channels are 24 hours for email, 2 hours for tweets and 4 days for post. Irish Water’s actual turnaround for each channel at present is same day for tweets, 5 days for emails, and 4 days for post.  This current performance reflects the volume of contacts currently being handled since the recent publication of the first Water Charges Plan, the commencement of charges liability on October 1st and the ongoing application campaign with substantial daily responses and enquiries arising from the circa 2 million packs and correspondence mail-out.

Earlier in 2014 m y Department asked Irish Water to put in place specific arrangements to address the queries which public representatives may have in relation to matters pertaining to the operation of water services under the new utility. Irish Water launched t he Elected Representative Support Desk in January, and the dedicated email service in late February. Irish Water has responded to 4,700 individual queries from elected representatives on a range of issues. Irish Water will contact the Deputy directly in relation to any outstanding queries.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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294. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the purpose of having to provide personal public service numbers when completing the Irish Water application form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38846/14]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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313. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the jurisdictions to date that Irish Water has transmitted information it has gathered from customers for secure storage or any other purpose; if he will provide a list in tabular form of the kinds of data which have been transmitted and for the purposes in each case; if he will provide a list of the names of companies, either domestically or abroad, which Irish Water has entered into a contract with to store, manage or otherwise utilise data Irish Water has gathered from customers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38982/14]

Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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331. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if the requirement for personal public service data by Irish Water is following the USA model of private utilities requiring social security details in order to run credit checks on customers and potential customers in order to ensure bill payment and collection of delinquent accounts and to ascertain level of deposit required in absence of a good credit rating. [39172/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 294, 313 and 331 together.

I refer to the reply to Question Nos. 2 07, 215, 208, 209, 210 and 211 of 8 October 2014. The position is unchanged.

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