Irish Water call centre to get 300k calls on grants

The Coalition is preparing to be swamped with hundreds of thousands of queries and problems over administering water charge assistance grants for households this year.

Plans are in place for a special centre to deal with 300,000 calls over six weeks from people experiencing problems filling in forms to get water grants paid into their accounts or by cheque.

The private company will collect PPS numbers and bank account details from people unable to fill in their grant applications online.