Irish Water has been referred to as a 'bad joke' after revelations that customers need to tell them the colour of their front door.

Today's Irish Examiner claims the utility company needs help matching 50,000 water meters to houses around the country.

It says a large number of properties with similar addresses are causing confusion on their database.

The problem is worst in rural areas, where people give their townlands as their address.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd-Barrett says the confusion is just another black mark against Irish Water: 

The TD also says that the company has 'no credibility whatsoever with people':

Meanwhile Irish Water has been provisionally placed on the Government's balance sheet as one of the bodies included in the Central Government Sector.

That's according to the Central Statistics Office, which today updated the Register of Public Sector Bodies in Ireland.

As a result, Irish Water will be included in Government borrowing figures under the Excessive Deficit Procedure.

According to the CSO website, the move to provisionally place Irish water on the Government balance sheet was agreed as a "prudential" measure.

A classification proposal on Irish Water is currently with EU statistics agency Eurostat.

Originally posted at 10.51am