Written answers
Tuesday, 4 November 2014
Department of Environment, Community and Local Government
Irish Water Administration
Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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1070. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government to explain the reason the Irish Water website has no landline listed under contact details, but solely mentions a 1890 number, while the application pack includes a landline but listed as a number for international callers to use, given that most telephone users and mobile networks offer callers free calls to all landlines as part of their package, and that the failure to have clear landline displayed is costing citizens excessive and unwarranted telephone charges; and his plans to address this issue. [42240/14]
Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local levels. 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 578 578. In this instance, I have raised the issue concerned directly with Irish Water. I have been informed that Irish Water adopted “1890” phone numbers as it considered that they strike a reasonable balance on contact cost between that incurred by the customer and that incurred by the utility. Irish Water’s remit is to discharge its service obligations within the operating cost framework approved by the Commission for Energy Regulation; the utility’s 1890 channels are consistent with this objective.
The Irish Water website lists two contact numbers (an “1890” and a “01” number) which can be found by following the “Contact Us” link at .
However, Irish Water has undertaken to amend the website to make it clearer to the public that the “01” landline number is also available for use.
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