Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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982. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number and the percentage of that number of application packs issued by Irish Water that have been returned properly completed. [41008/14]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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983. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number and the percentage of that number of application packs issued by Irish Water that have been returned uncompleted. [41009/14]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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984. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if Irish Water issued any request to An Post regarding the way to deal with Irish Water application packs that are being returned unopened to Irish Water. [41010/14]

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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1026. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of Irish Water application packs that were returned to sender; if Irish Water has identified the number due to incorrect names, addresses or other information; if Irish Water has destroyed returned post that was marked return to sender; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41555/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 982 to 984, inclusive, and 1026 together.

Irish Water has sent application packs to approximately 2 million households, which refer to the effective charging date and the fact that billing for domestic customers in receipt of public water services will start in January 2015.  Irish Water has informed my Department that as of 31 October 2014, it had received some 811,000 responses and approximately 77% of these responses were to confirm as customers of Irish Water. M y Department does not have any information on the number of application packs that havebeen returned incorrectly completed or returned to sender. Irish Water has informed my Department it has no arrangements in place with An Post in this regard.

Irish Water has established a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives and is contacting all Oireachtas members to provide details of an improved level of service which it is aiming to provide. The team can be contacted via email to oireachtasmembers@water.ieor by telephone on a new dedicated number, 1890 5 78 578.

Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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985. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his views on the efficiency of the specific Member's helpline provided by Irish Water (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41016/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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With effect from 1 January 2014, Irish Water is responsible for public water services. At the request of m y Department , Irish Water 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 has acknowledged that the level of service it has provided to public representatives needs to be improved and has apologised for any shortcomings that have arisen to date in terms of the timeliners and quality of responses.

Irish Water has also informed my Department that so far it has received just over 5,000 queries from public representatives:

- 2,400 from Oireachtas Members – 1,700 via

and 700 by phone.

- A further 2,600 queries have been received from Local Councillors by email and phone.

Irish Water is contacting all Oireachtas members to provide details of the improved service which it is aiming to provide, including a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives. The team can be contacted via email to oireachtasmembers@water.ieor by telephone on a new dedicated number ,1890 578 578. A separate contact telephone line is also being provided for local councillors.