'Years' to fix water data issues

Billing errors have seen the company in the headlines

It could take years for Northern Ireland Water to improve its data quality, the firm's chairman has said.

Chris Mellor made the remarks while briefing a Stormont committee on Wednesday.

Northern Ireland Water has been in the headlines over inaccurate billing for business users and a multi-million pound error in its business plan.

Mr Mellor said based on industry standards, the problems could take "three to five years to resolve".

"It's not about systems and processes it's about culture," he said.

"Transformation is two thirds people and one third processes in my experience, and that takes a long while to get people to understand that, in this case, data quality is hugely important."