Concern voiced over number of long-term boil water notices

Concern has been expressed by the Water Advisory Body (WAB) that 20 out of the 21 boil water notices in place at the end of the first thee months of this year are long-term - exceeding 30 days.

This means that the solution to fix the problem with the plant could not be addressed quickly and requires significant investment by Irish Water.

Also noted in the WAB’s latest report is the fall in the number of priority areas from 148 in 2017 to 92 in 2022. This includes the number of areas discharging raw sewage in Q2 2022 and the number of areas in 2021 that did not meet Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive standards.

Chairperson of The Water Advisory Body, Paul McGowan, commented on the number of long-term boil water notices: “Under normal circumstances the WAB expects that no consumer should be on a long-term boil water notice. However, 20 of the 21 boil water notices in place at the end of Q1 2022 were long-term notices which means the notice exceeded 30 days. Larger water supplies on long-term boil water notices at the end of Q1 2022 included Whitegate Regional in Co. Cork (9,482 people) and Gort in Co. Galway (2,776 people). The WAB notes this disappointing trend and will continue to monitor Irish Water’s progress in this area”.

Commenting on the performance decline by Irish Water in almost all of the customer complaints management metrics and the targeted local survey of Irish Water customers, Mr McGowan said: “Customer service is at the core of utility delivery, and timely, effective complaints management is an important element of customer service. The WAB is disappointed to observe this level of performance in an area it would reasonably expect to see improvement year-on-year as it beds in its customer complaints processes.

"It is of particular concern to see deterioration in this area while at the same time recording an improvement in customer satisfaction. The WAB also recommends that Irish Water’s response time for customer complaints and issues be improved in order to avoid, households and businesses having to make follow up calls to the Company.”