Just over half of households across the country have registered with Irish Water, the company has confirmed.

Some 810,000 homes were signed up at the start of this month, according to documents seen by independent.ie.

This figure is far short of the 1.5m households Irish Water aims to service.

The company has today admitted that customers have faced "unacceptable delays" in trying to make contact with staff.

But it pledged that adequate resources are being channelled into improving its communications.

According to Irish Water, an average of 19,000 calls have bee. received daily from members of the public since September 29. The highest single number of calls was 25,200 received on October 1.

The semi-state company revealed that it has received 2,600 queries from councillors and 2,400 queries from members of the Oireachtas.

On the issue of ownership, Irish Water Chief executive John Tierney insisted that privatisation is not on the cards.

"We are is a semi-State company and in accordance with the Water Services Acts 2013 the company cannot be privatised," he said in correspondence with Dublin City councillors.

In terms of meters, some 475,000 have been installed to date.

"The year end target for 2014, of 450,000, has already been exceeded," Mr Tierney said.

Online Editors