Tapping Themselves On The Back

at

irishwater

Just safeguarding their future.

Felim writes:

I attach an ad (above) in today’s Irish Independent. I realise this gravy train cannot be stopped in the lifetime of this government but why exactly are we paying for this embarrassingly too-late propaganda?

Anyone?

Sponsored Link

50 thoughts on “Tapping Themselves On The Back

  1. Rob_G

    Possibly because some people still think that potable water, delivered to your tap, and their waste water treatment and all that that entails shouldn’t have to be paid for because “it rains a lot in Ireland”.

    1. ahjayzis

      When are we going to have to pay for school construction, hospital construction and the like?

      I mean I can’t believe we’ve been getting them for free for a hundred years…

        1. Charley

          Hardly anyone uses gas outside Dublin, its not really a utility more of a Victorian leftover that the Dubs couldn’t let go of.

        2. ahjayzis

          To clarify.

          I have no objection to paying for the water I use via a flat rate above a reasonable free allowance (that should cover a decent usage level without incurring charges). The free allowance is justified since we already pay separately via VAT and MT.

          I have *profound* objections to capital projects being funded by flat taxation. The water system needs a complete rebuild – we don’t build other capital projects by levying the same tax on a single mother as on multi-billionaires. Schools don’t get built by charging the parents of the ‘users’ a flat fee. We ALL pay, according to how much we earn.

          Summary: I’ll pay a flat rate for use above a reasonable amount. I won’t pay a flat tax for a construction project.
          I believe people should pay what they can according to their means. Incidentally that would involve me paying a higher rate where it through a progressive tax – this is a matter of principle.

          1. Rob_G

            I think that it is not a bad principle that a service funds itself, by people being charged for what they use.

            I’m not sure that your analogy schools works so well – that would fall exclusively on one section of society (parents of school-age children), whereas everyone uses and benefits from the water system.

          2. ahjayzis

            Well not everyone, but yes a vast majority do. The comparison still works, though.

            If the school building budget was to be raised from the families who use the schools – and was a flat, capped charge regardless of income. How is that fair? A family in Ballymun paying as much as the family in Dalkey for regeneration of our school stock?
            But that’s exactly the system the government has set up to regenerate our water system.

            Maintenance and supply are one thing – constructing a new water network is pretty obviously a completely different thing.

          3. Sham Bob

            Spot on ahjayzis. In its current form it’s just regressive taxation with water conservation a secondary concern. The government’s sloppy attempts to get it over the line are an insult. Have a hundred quid ye plebs, we’ll be back for the rest later.

      1. Clo

        I pay for my water infrastructure – well, pump, pipes, softener, electricity, etc. Haven’t been getting them free. Not saying that then everyone else should also pay, just pointing out that the reality for a large chunk of the population here is that their domestic water has long been paid for out of their own pockets.

        1. ahjayzis

          Yep, I covered that above.

          It’s what happens when you build off the grid, endemic in a country with as piss-poor planning as Ireland.

        2. ahjayzis

          But if you want to home-school your kids, you’re still paying for the system via your taxes.

        3. ollie

          Clo, 20% of households are not connected to public water supply. 27.5% of households dump their waste in a tank in the garden.
          Large chunk of the population? I don’t think so.

          1. Paolo

            I’ll cut off 20% of your head and you let me know if it feels like a small chunk or a large chunk.

    2. ollie

      No Rob, because we already pay for it through vat and motor tax.
      I got my bill yesterday for April to June. My household uses less water than the european average and my metered cost would be just under €600 a year.
      The really annoying part is that it would take 500 similar homes to pay John Tierney’s salary.
      Also, If I pay the €260 annual charge and claim back my €100 conversation grant, it will take me over 2 years to pay for my meter installation, so I contribute nothing from my water charges towards my clean water.
      Then there’s the redundancy payments that water chargeshave to cover for the thousands of ex. council employees who have been promised a big pay off when they retire ealry, starting from next year.

      1. Paolo

        What’s your solution? Pay water staff nothing? Continue with local authorities duplicating and triplicating resources and costs? The Per unit cost of water in Ireland is lower than most other EU countries, even though we are just starting the process. On one hand you’re complaining about it costing too much and then in the same paragraph you are complaining that it is not costing enough.

  2. Wayne.F

    Or the fact that a 15 year old boil notice has been lifted because of the construction of new water treatment plants by Irish water on Roscommon

    1. ollie

      Wayne, the new water treatment plants in Roscommon were planned, designed and financed before irish water was set up. So, the system did work.

  3. Martin Heavy-Guy

    Well at least they fixed the water in Castlerea, they can get back to their slippery soap competitions.

          1. Martin Heavy-Guy

            Really? Well we’d better call it quits before we get tide down by this post.

            I do love how this thread has become an island in waves of emotional outburst about IW.

  4. 15 cents

    even if they fixed everything wrong with the quango .. ill never be able to look past the dumb logo.. it reads like this; water, irish, irish, water

    1. ahjayzis

      It’s the tagline that offends me.

      “Irish Wawshur – protecting your wawshur fer yer fewchur”

      And knowing that those 8 words probably cost them 500,000 in fees and 3 months of focus grouping and brainstorming.

  5. nellyb

    Would like to see how much the councils spend monthly for fixing leaks caused by installation of water meters. Hope councils charge IW and it is on Irish Water balance sheet.

    1. Spaghetti Hoop

      And indeed the property management companies who, pre-Irish Water had responsibility for external drains in apartment complexes. Management fees should by right be cut if the responsibility now transfers to IW.

        1. Paolo

          Please please please move to another country. You loath the place so much, why are you still here?

          1. ahjayzis

            Paolo, it’s not my fault you’re, like, in love with me.

            It’s lovely having a fan, but you’re just too intense pet.

            x

        1. Spaghetti Hoop

          Don’t I’m afraid. But I would put pressure on both IW and the Management Company to specify clearly in a contractual way who is responsible for what. If any duties were dropped by the latter, demand a reduction in the fee.

  6. Fergal

    Whereas a significant proportion of rural Ireland provide for for their own water through private wells or group schemes and it most certainly is not free. €10,000 to drill well, and install pump and treatment units for a domestic house as well as ongoing running, maintenance and input costs. But sure it rains a-lot in Ireland – it should be free. And when we are running a deficit of €1,864 Million in the first Quarter of 2015 we are clearly not paying.

    1. ollie

      Boo hoo, I pay for water, I don’t have broadband, I live in a 4 bed fug ugly dormer bungalow 3 miles from the nearest main road. I store my siht in a tank in my garden. My cattle are responsible for 20% of irish greenhouse gas production. I want I want I want.
      Rural Ireland is a money pit that we can no longer afford as you have proved by pointing out our enormous current defecit.
      Why don’t the government make each county self financing? No more urban subsidising rural, no more paying €10k for water when Mr city guy pays fukc all.

        1. Anne

          “We subsidise public transport for salaried workers so they can live in splendid isolation.”

          Who’s we?

    2. ahjayzis

      I’ll repeat the homeschool analogy.

      You choose to live off the grid, more power to you – you pay for the privilege though.
      If I decide to build a palace on Rockall, I won’t crib about the Irish state not treating it on a par with a semi-d in Tallaght for the purposes of utility grid connections.

  7. Donne Knox

    Soon, when Irish Water’s liquidity runs dry, and John Tierney retires with a large redundancy payment, plus a large pension, plus a ‘productivity’ bonus yet to be worked out, who is going to pay for all that? Will all the new employees of Irish Water go on the Dole along with all the past Council workers already signing on? Will there then be another ad. congratulating themselves on how they ‘tapped’ the taxpayers? But that’s OK. Have another drink on us, we’re used to it.

Comments are closed.

Sponsored Link
Broadsheet.ie