49 thoughts on “Holding The Line”

      1. Am I Still on this Island.

        Ok, those people who aren’t Labour members, such as your good self. People who don’t insist on using private maternity hospitals for fear of contamination by the plebs.

        2. Dubloony

          And people who want a functioning water system for everyone, that needs to be metered to identify where the leaks are and that needs to be paid for so that everyone conserves water. And so on.

          1. aretheymyfeet

            Ha, you think its about conservation?! Ok, so this new IW borrows ‘off the books’ to upgrade the system. Everyone conserves water. IW still owe same amount. Who pays?

          2. Sam

            “And people who want a functioning water system for everyone, that needs to be metered to identify where the leaks are

            with about 40% of the water never reaching a tap, the leaks are not on the tenant’s side of the meter. If 40% of the water from my supply was leaking into the property, I’d have discovered it by now.

            and that needs to be paid for so that everyone conserves water. And so on.”

            Conserve water? Who are these people leaving the shower on all day and flushing the toilet 6 times after they pi$$? People might leave the tap run too long while brushing teeth, but the 45% leakage rate is where we are losing valuable drinking water.

            The conservation line is a fiction, and also with the idea that they’re already charging people, using a rate not decided on how can anyone know what the incentive is to conserve?

            If they’re hitting people with a bill mostly weighted by a flat charge, then it’s not much of an incentive to conserve water. It’s just a revenue raising exercise.

            When my office got a metre installed, we got a massive bill for water (5 months after the bill period ended – which said we were wasting 1000 litres per day, including on days we were closed. – the dedicated ‘leak inspection’ engineer asked if I’d checked if it was the loft – as if the ceiling would still be there and the carpet under it dry with 1000 litres per day leaking in the loft.
            They didn’t inspect any pipes, and when I got the hole excavated, we found a leak a few feet from the meter. They weren’t interested in fixing the leak, they were interested in charging us money.
            Also, there was a derelict building not far from us, where you could hear the water gushing out from broken pipes, and they didn’t bother to switch off the supply to the building. Nobody to charge for doing it…

          4. Medium Sized C

            Its about the only thing you can accept as true from the entire post.

            Like the amount of conjecture and half logic in that mess is astounding, but the estimates of 40%+ of treated water being lost in the network is pretty well established.

            The information is freely available on the DOE’s website.

    1. andyourpointiswhatexactly

      I heard this morning about the Meter Fairies or something. You can contact them via Facebook or Twitter and they’ll remove your meter for you. Some fella down the country had removed 60 of ’em. Not sure how smart all this palaver is, though. Using Facebook ‘n’ all.

      2. Soundings

        Couldn’t condone any of this of course, but blow-torching would render the meter useless, not interfere with water flow and force IW to take out the old meter and install a new one.

        Mind you, it would probably swell DOB’s bank account even more, but on balance….

      3. munkifisht

        Reminds me of that story of parking clamps in Paris where concerned citizens put superglue in the locks destroying the clamp so it would have to be cut off. Clamps lasted 2 weeks….

        Yes I saw it on QI but had heard about it before.

  3. Clampers Outside!

    “all persons with knowledge of this order” ………so, if you don’t know about the order, the order doesn’t apply?

    *blind folds Gran, gives her headphones, hits play on audio book of ‘War & Peace’, releases break on wheelchair’*

    You’re goin’ protestin’ Gran!

  4. Same Old Guy

    Delighted. Good on them. This happens every where and its game over. I hope it spreads llike wildfire.

    1. Medium Sized C

      You’re on a web forum, cheering on people to break the law.

      How bout you go and do it yourself.

      1. Same Old Guy

        Ah the law. The fair and equitable law. Gotta love the law.

        You go home to comfy land. The rest of us can take delight in people standing up to legalized thuggery

        1. Medium Sized C

          Is comfort supposed to be a criticism?
          How comfortable am I, tell me?

          I’ll bet you are sitting down.
          Sitting down and not breaking the law.

          1. Same Old Guy

            There 5 years ago outside the Dept of Finance when the IMF came marching in. Me and the other 150 of us now that you ask. Should I bore you with the rest?

          2. Medium Sized C

            What has that to do with anything?
            Is there some sort of protest credit system I wasn’t told about?

          4. smoothlikemurphys

            “There 5 years ago outside the Dept of Finance when the IMF came marching in. Me and the other 150 of us now that you ask. Should I bore you with the rest?”

            Sent the IMF packing did you?

  5. Same Old Guy

    It would seem Medium Sized C thinks we should all be jolly little serfs. Game is up.

    Hello labour party. Let me introduce you to The Greens. You’re gonna be getting to know them real well :-)

        1. Medium Sized C

          As constructive as anything you have said in this thread.
          You’re painting a portrait of yourself as a total bloody hypocrite.

  7. spork

    i as a citizen refuse to pay for lotto, booze, cigarettes, iphones, sky sports, and a threatening dog. these things should be free as they are a basic right of the people.

    1. Sam

      Yes, you’re right of course. None of us would last six days without fags, flagons of cider and the Premiership on a giant plasma screen.
      Also, the cigarette factory, cider, Sky Sports broadcast infrastructure, and Plasma TV factories were all built by the taxes that we and our predecessors paid for.
      Flawless analogy except for y’know… facts.
      No society needs Sky, but they all need clean water, and the necessities are what we’ve agreed to contribute towards, its why we pay taxes for clean water, hospitals, schools, fire brigades, etc.
      I’m not interested in paying an extra tax for water, just to make it easier for the gombeen class to keep feeding their parasitic friends with sinecures and handy contracts and down the road, a privatised commodity with a guaranteed market.

  8. Banotti

    You never see the words “irish water protest at Rathgar Dublin” or “water protestors gather in Howth”.

    It’s always the same few kips that I’ve managed to stay well away from.

  9. AliG

    More people who don’t want to pay fairly for the treated water and sewerage. They want the gov to put all the cost on income tax payers.

    1. Sam

      We’ve been paying for water and waste treatment out of general taxation, and as a taxpayer I am happy to continue with that arrangement.
      I’ve no interested in being taxed twice for the same service, and having another quango full of sinecured and overpaid bonus-addicts sucking on the public tit.

      1. Rep

        You would be taxed twice. The money currently being used to fund the water treatment would be used for something else. Also, since we are running at a quite impressive deficit, there is a high chance that we are actually borrowing the money to pay for the water system at the moment. That is a water system that is currently losing half of its treated water to leaks and where many parts of the country are unable to actually drink the water from the taps. But it would seem that is the system you want to keep.

      2. Hosannah in the Hiace

        tosh.

        people with private supplies pay the same taxes and have to pay for their water too.

        foolish comment

    2. Soundings

      The cost is already being borne by income tax payers whose taxation is progressive (some might say “fair”) and where you “pay as you earn”, in other words, no earnings, no tax liability.

      IW is a second tax, isn’t fair, doesn’t take account of ability to pay, is grossly mismanaged, isn’t focussed on conservation, benefits a controversial businessman and friend of FG, wasn’t properly debated in the Dail and guess what? People are protesting and looking forward to IW charges being scrapped,

    3. Original Cynic

      Businesses have been paying water charges for years – no doubt passing the cost on to consumers. Where has this money evaporated to?

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