Irish Water complaints dropped by nearly 20% last year

There was nearly a 20 per cent drop in the number of Irish Water complaints in 2015, according to the latest report from the Commission for Energy Regulation's Customer Care Team (CCT).

The CCT, which offers a complaints resolution service to customers in disputes with their energy supplier or network operator, noted an overall decrease of 30 per cent in the number of customer complaints logged in 2015.

In its first full year working with Irish Water customers, the CCT closed 16 complex water complaints last year, 25 per cent of which were in upheld in favour of the customer. ‘Complex ’complaints are those which require a full investigation.

There were a total of 650 Irish Water customer contacts logged in 2015, a decrease of 19 per cent on the number of Irish Water contacts logged in 2014.

The CCT attributes the higher volume of contacts in 2014 to the large number of queries following the public announcement of the water charges.

The majority of complaints in 2015 focused around billing and account issues, charges and metering problems, with some 56 per cent of complex water complaints focusing on meter issues.

Irish Water complaints made up 17 per cent of the overall contacts received by the CCT.

Under the Water Services Act 2014, the Commission for Energy Regulation is responsible for resolving any complaints Irish Water customers.

A total of 359 complex complaints were logged in 2015, a decrease of 17.5 per cent on the previous year.

Of these, the CCT closed 373 complex energy complaints.

More than 50 per cent of these energy complaints were either upheld in favour of the customer, or the customer agreed to accept and early settlement offer.