Irish Water is engaging with the CER to enter into a process of dispute resolution with the CER despite the fact that there is no statutory basis to do this.
Paul O Donoghue, Head of Customer Operations in Irish Water, confirmed today ‘Irish Water will not be waiting for legislation to be passed to enter into arrangements with the CER to resolve issues with customers. If a customer has an issue that they feel we have not resolved then the customer will be able to take that issue to the CER as an independent third party and we are currently in discussion with the CER on this very point.’
He added ‘We will enter into a dispute resolution on a voluntary basis because there is no legislation mandating us to do so. We believe resolving customer issues, with the CER acting as an independent third party, is an essential part of good customer engagement and are happy to act as if the legislation is already in place.’
Irish Water are currently engaging with the CER to put in place a dispute resolution that meets customer expectations but at the same time recognises the poor state of the entire water services network through out Ireland. Irish Water has taken over an asset base that has suffered from decades of under investment and which clearly is not capable of meeting the needs of communities, the environment and the economy on a consistent basis.