‘According To internal Estimates By Irish Water’

at

irishtimes

Today’s Irish Times

Reggiecide writes:

‘Up to seven billion’…

Let’s take that with the pinch of salt we need for every utterance that comes out of that failed utlitity but why is the Irish Times continuing to allow such obvious spin to dominate its front page. After peddling fear (which few bought) throughout the General Election campaign you have to hand it to them for their stamina if nothing else..

In fairness.

Irish Water abolition ‘would cost State up to €7bn’ (Irish Times)

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51 thoughts on “‘According To internal Estimates By Irish Water’

  1. Sam

    Sunk costs are irrelevant. They’ve already occurred.

    The benefits forgone are the domestic water charges valued at €1.6 billion that would be collected in the period to 2021, yeah, if people were all paying.

    and a further €1.6 billion in savings that are part of the utility’s business plan to 2021.

    Who would put any credibility in those figures, considering how much spin IW generate?

    1. Anne

      “Who would put any credibility in those figures, considering how much spin IW generate?”

      RTE are.. non fupping stop spouting the spin.

      Anyone recall Sinead O’Connor interviewing Ryan Turbridy asking him was RTE state run TV?
      https://youtu.be/_O-BnastCMw?t=125

      You have Turbridy answering there, “no not at all, it’s run by independent people who wouldn’t ever interfere with programming.. ” Yeah right.

      She was spot on.. Obviously not so much with the camera man who she hung out to dry IMO, but still spot on.

    1. Joe

      Probable huge buy out clauses on the high up folk contracts and redundancy payments for permenant staff. The euros aren’t long racking up with that cost alone.

  2. Eoin

    And here come the excuses. It’ll cost billions to wrap up, Brussels won’t let us…etc. etc. Take the money from the pensions of the incompetent ministers who set this odious entity up in the first place.

  3. Junkface

    So has everyone who has already paid water charges on Direct debit cancelling it now? Should we all cancel? What a mess!

    1. Vote Rep #1

      It would seem that people have no issue with water charges, just IW so FF are going to introduce their own version of IW and everyone who is refusing to pay will then pay and it’ll all be grand.

      1. TheDude

        that’s bound to work. How naming it Irish Water 2, everyone and not just the drones will pay next time for sure

  4. ahjayzis

    It’s already over for domestic charges.

    I’d say Coveney’s prevarication last night was the last nail in the coffin – no one is going to pay if even the originators of the scheme are dithering, since there’ll be no refunds and they’re not going to pursue non-payers.

    1. Vote Rep #1

      Hurrah for antiquated water systems! Boil notices for all!

      Lets just wait for it all to go tits up big style before attempting to do anything about it!

      1. ahjayzis

        Right…

        If only the state had other sources of taxation to tap into that could possibly pay for the provision of water. Oh for the days when it was entirely free and run by fairies.

        Next they’ll be talking about making abolishing fees for primary and secondary education, and then we’d have no money to build schools.

        1. Rob_G

          Great – so PAYE workers will just pick up the tab for everything again, wonderful. Why would anyone bother their holes to conserve water when they know it won’t make any difference to how much they have to pay?

          1. ahjayzis

            *psssssst*

            It already doesn’t make a difference if you conserve or not – it’s a flat charge.

            A flat charge that costs more to collect than it would make were 100% of people to pay it.

            I support paying for what you consume and the cost of producing it *over* a generous free amount.
            I oppose a flat tax regardless of income in order to pay for a network to be rebuilt from scratch. By tradition we fund capital projects through taxation, not poll taxes.

          2. Rob_G

            in a way I kind of agree with you – wasn’t it meant to be a flat charge initially, and then metred charges rolled out over a couple of years? I think that flat charge was yet another fudge by FG and Labour on the issue; it should have been metred charges from the get-go.

            “By tradition we fund capital projects through taxation, not poll taxes.”

            – by tradition, utilities are paid for according to the amount the person has used.

  5. Jake38

    In decades to come PhDs will be written about this example of how not to administer a public service.

    1. Owen

      Decades to come??! In Saudi they are trying to set up PPPs at the moment. IW is surprisingly well known.

  6. Steve

    Whatever about water charges being charged to households , would people be happy to let the water services go back to the local authorities?? Who left it in a heap and managed it like their personal fiefdoms??

    1. ahjayzis

      I want a national authority, not a commercial semi-state.

      Abolishing Irish Water doesn’t preclude centralised control.

  7. Pablo Pistachio

    Next up, ripping out all the water meters and handing them back to DOB for a refund…well we can dream can’t we.

    €7bn? It’ll be nowhere near that figure. But after what we’ve been forced to pay to prop up the banks and the golden circle…sure I’ll take two.

  8. Junkface

    I want the water system in Ireland to be fixed, no leaks, no poisoning etc.. I don’t mind paying a water charge as long as its reasonably priced and not the most expensive in Europe, like everything else in this country.

    But I don’t want to be paying a bill which is going to be scrapped soon anyway, they’ve already got some money from me.

    1. Owen

      Too right Junky. I’d like to see a separate number of companies set up nationally to compete with IW. Competition forces service to increase.

      1. Declan

        Surely they realised Zuppy paid for the water through his motor tax and that VAT increase? The fools

  9. Eoin

    Divert the money being used to repay unsecured bond holders odious debts into the water infrastructure. There. Fixed.

  10. medieval knievel

    the IT are reporting ‘Irish Water have claimed it could cost €7bn to wind up’; they are not reporting ‘It will cost €7bn to wind up irish water’

  11. Murtles

    The only part of their figure that are gospel is the €100 million they are saying is needed to pay off the directors and top earners in the company. As if they haven’t got enough.

    1. SB

      I actually agree with the water charges (though they should have been metered (reasonably) immediately) but feck that, if they’re going to scrap it and not make refunds, I’m going to cancel my direct debit. Can you, actually? I thought that once you grant DD permission, only the biller can change it?

  12. Junkface

    I just cancelled my direct debit, and I know another 2 who also did the same today.

    Also, didn’t a director of Irish Water resign recently after 2 or 3 years in the job and get a big fat pension? I’m not paying for anymore Quango pensions. Fupp the lot!

  13. 15 cents

    all the money they spent setting it up and putting in meters wouldve eaaaaasily paid for updating the whole system. And FG and LAB would probably be looking at another 5 years in office together right now. Even tho they dropped the ball on a multitude of other things, they wouldve been able to say “we fixed a dated water system at no extra cost to the tax payer”,

    1. Steve

      Sorry you’re wrong there. Metering expenditure to date + costs to set it up are about the same as one year’s network investment needs….600 million.

      To get the whole network up to scratch and to ensure that the EU commission don’t fine the irish state for letting untreated p@&s and sh@t into our rivers and coastal areas will costs billions. To put it in DNS parlance…the network is in a jocker.

  14. Otis Blue

    And John Tierney retires in April. That’s some charmed life he’s had.

    Incidentally where’s Elizabeth Arnett these days? Haven’t heard from her in awhile.

  15. Truth in the News

    Will “Busy Lizzy” be rewarded like Tierney too….where did they come up with the
    7 Billion wind up figure and then the inspired piece in the “Old Lady’s” front page
    The reality is Irish Water is history and a monument to the politican’s and so
    called public service that dreamed it, hoping that it would be a cash cow for selling
    off once the revenue stream got going… .As well as the Tierney retirment package
    we need to tackle the golden packages that the recently sacked politicans are
    collecting.

  16. John B

    I’ve just noticed having walked all over Old Bawn and MIllbrook in Tallaght yesterday there’s no meters outside all the houses. Thousands of houses. I haven’t looked further afield like Jobstown, Killinarden etc. but I wouldn’t be surprised if they are not there also. Did people power push the installers back in Tallaght, and how could they roll out charges when the biggest suburb in the country isn’t in?

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