Alan Kelly opens Dail water debate: “I thought I’d seen it all… but we’re going back to the past… politics is failing”
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) April 27, 2016
“Triumph of mediocrity over midernism… the triumph of short-termism over common sense… political, economic and environmental sabotage..”
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) April 27, 2016
“This is 1977 all over again. Groundhog Day, when local water rates were abolished by Fianna Fail…”
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) April 27, 2016
“Priorities, question mark”, he continues, vocalising the question mark”
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) April 27, 2016
This afternoon.
Labour TD Alan Kelly.
Any excuse.
he’s the worst
He is right here though.
No he is completely wrong. He is the worst kind of human being. A horrible horrible person.
Nope, he is a dislikable character but he is correct here.
We should have water charges, just like we have electricity charges, gas charges etc. Canceling them or postponing them is not really a positive step.
There is a reason that we are about the only country in the OECD without them (or will be without them).
The set-up of IW has been a sh!t-show but the basic idea is a good one.
News is he is very angry his brother can’t get his hands on those big money contracts from Irish water.
Our water can be set up by people now who will try to do it without corruption & fear of selling it.
This is not a church collection where you *should* donate 10% of your earnings, it is about a charge which doesn’t even cover the cost of collection let alone anything else.
Feel free to pay it if you want but don’t attempt to judge those who have more sense than money. What is being questioned is the bad if not downright incompetent management of Irish Water and that includes Kelly.
And being the only country in the OECD who does not have a charge does not mean we do not pay for it btw. Among other things, they got a fortune from Europe to build roads then slapped it on the road tax.
The charge doesn’t cover collection only because of all the public outcry.
If the charge remains, expect it to rise.
No, we don’t have to do it because most of Europe does but it is worth asking why our position would be so different…
@ Cluster
The charge as it now stands would not cover the costs, even with 100% compliance. Do the maths.
The charge is gone so a new funding model is required.
Our position is different because successive Governments have fudged the issue since the last time charges were boycotted. The OECD difference only highlights the convoluted way in which water tax is recouped in Ireland, not people’s willingness to pay.
Will someone please pass on to Alan that the opposite of doing a bad job is doing a good job, not doing nothing.
You, your partners and your predecessor made such a bad job of the whole thing that you have to go back to square one. You have nobody to blame but yourselves
Angry face. Angry face. Devil horns.
betrayer of the poor and the workers – he should be ashamed of himself
The man clearly feels no shame
“This is 1977 all over again. Groundhog Day, when local water rates were abolished by Fianna Fail…”
On that he’s right, it’s just that their idea of a solution wasn’t really this puppets idea at all.
more Alan…
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/kelly-claims-dublin-faces-water-shortages-if-irish-water-scrapped-1.2626162?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Fkelly-claims-dublin-faces-water-shortages-if-irish-water-scrapped-1.2626162
he needs to stop. now.
My God the lad is a clown
Not a fan of Kelly but you can tell he means what he says there – I would love to hear others stand up and give their honest assessment of the current situation minus any political grandstanding
You don’t think this is political grandstanding? Gwan outta that.
What has he said exactly other than some opening comments full of bluster? The man basically gave a list of his own failings – back to the past, no common sense, short termism….
In your opinions, which is fair enough, but he put in to words, fairly eloquently, the frustration I and others around me today are feeling. I see genuine frustration and annoyance rather than bluster, that’s just me. And like I said, I wouldn’t be a massive fan but I’m looking at the words rather than who what I think of the person who delivered them #beingobjective
I doubt you’ll find anyone bit the usual volunteer government spokespeople agreeing with you there. Kelly is not an honest man. Most can see this.
so he can’t mean what he says. Gotcha.
Not in that speech, no.
No. It is just that I cannot believe what he says with any sincerity, due to his past form for outright lies and exaggeration and on housing, plainly just making stuff up…. so yeah, I wouldn’t trust a word out of him whether I agree with him or not.
He already exposed himself as a career politician with that ridiculous comment about power suiting him. This today is him whinging that FF took some power away from him.
And what Moyest said !
Sounds like Harry is a government spokesman, to be fair.
Sorry but that’s all so stupid and immature from the lot of you.
Because you don’t like him, justifiably so tbf, you can completely write off anything he ever says? Grow up lads
No, deal with reality please, Harry. We’re not writing off what he said says just because we don’t like him. That was a dishonest thing for you to say and you know it. We’re writing it off based on his past behaviour and actions.
Harry, I am being objective. Taking all the facts into account Kelly has lost a lot of trust. For good reason as you say. Whatever about the words he delivered today, his actions in the past discount this supposed earnestness. They ring hollow when rang from this particular bell
End.
Harry I’d like to hear what Alan has done over his term in government that you admire so much and think we overlooking in our account of him. Thanks
Harry is not arguing that he thinks highly of Alan Kelly.
Harry is merely giving his assessment that Kelly sounds as if he is making a genuine point.
You may disagree but the rationales given so far – in summary, Kelly is power-hungry & inauthentic – miss Harry’s point.
I wouldn’t waste any time arguing with these sorts Harry, it’s like a full convent of nuns here at choir
Surely questioning his authenticity is to bring in to question how genuine he is? My point is that due to his behaviour in the past it is hard to take him at face value. I and others saw it different to yourself and Harry. No big deal.
The words contained ring true anyway.
It’s be easier to take Alan’s gusto if he hadn’t a) sat back and watched the homelessness crisis worsen b) instigated a 2 year freeze on rent increases, instead of tackling greedy landlords, now 2 years on rents are rocketing faster then ever c) commissioned a modular housing scheme that is costing twice what it should have, and is being built by a company with a questionable safety record.. but at least Alan got his photo op..
By simply sitting back and doing nothing, has watched the housing crisis worsen and decided again and again to do nothing about it. There’s approx 2,000 children homeless in Ireland today and what has Alan Kelly done to help them question mark
another lie/enhancement…those houses aren’t modular, not remotely
he’s a guffmeister
D) his brother was looking for big money cobtracts from Irish water.
‘Being objective’? Ah heor.
You’re seriously misguided if you think anything out of that mouth is sincere.
Does this mean his brother won’t get those big corrupt contracts now from Irish water? No wonder he is angry. God you could not make this stuff up
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Suck it up ak.
Already pay for water, not paying again.
Again, water charges or not, you have not paid for water.
Our water system has not been paid for.
The people have paid for Irish water through taxes the last 30 years. This has been proven as a fact.
It’s been a proven fact that lots of taxes were collected from lots if sources and pooled. How that tax was spent has sweet eff hey to do with its collection.
In 1997 5% was added onto motor tax and 2% to VAT specifically to address water. We have been paying for water since then.
Part of the argument was that there was no equivalent reduction in taxation to account for the bills. There also was no need for a bloated, cronyistic quango in order to administrate it
Jimmy 2 tones, the system is existing (metaphorically) on fumes.
Our infrastructure is creaking.
It has not been paid for at all.
Yes it has.
Ask yourself this. Why was so much money available for roads but not water?
Because drivers had to pay the price for poor roads in an obvious way (time, accidents, fuel).
There was a motor tax & an expectation that something be done.
@SomeOldQueen… next time look out for the big blue, white and yellow signs on the roads with something along the lines of paid for with European funding written on them.
I’d also add that getting the roads up to scratch was more of a priority than water.
Plus the EU wasn’t giving us money for water, they were giving us money for roads.
But you knew all this, didn;t you. You’re just taken the mick, you literally cannot have forgotten or been unaware….. you kidder.
@ Clampers
There was and is EU money for Water projects. The Structural and Regional development Funds is one such example. I expect that the problem is that they are insisting on some sort of user charge which has now clashed with the convoluted water taxing system already in place in Ireland.
Let’s hope this commission gets to the bottom of it eh?
Mmmmm – the money has been taken in taxes. In my book, if money is taken from you for the supply of something, then you have paid for it. 1997 and Howlin made it quite clear that motor tax increases and vat increases were put there to pay for the failure of his government at the time to introduce….water charges.
Now, as I have paid my (increased) taxes, but the money hasn’t been invested in the ‘system’, isn’t it a case that my money was basically stolen? And another €1bn+ wasted in developing a billing system.
@ classter
I have paid for water through central, value added and motor taxation.
I will not be paying again.
Thank you for your concern.
Yeah, you paid. We all paid. We all paid a pittance when a wedge was needed.
So, now you’re being told the system needs more money because it is not working and is getting worse. So, are you willing to pay to have it fixed or are you going to say something really stupid like ‘we already paid twice’ even though you know the system is fupped?
I reckon Alan should he become leader will do more damage to the labour Party then any election result will.
Fingers crossed. As an ex labour voter I welcome their demise
+1 .. and the sooner the better
I really love your posts that comprise wholly of Gavan Reilly tweets.
He’s the answer to a question that no one asked.
I can think of a few questions that could be answered with the words Alan Kelly, but Broadsheet would censor me.
I hear you.
“I thought I had seen it all” –
he is 41 and has served 1 Dáil term – I think he may see some more
Very angry man. Was it something in his childhood.
Great bit of independent thought there. You’re quick. Someone gets cross about something, it must be mental illness as a result of a history of abuse…. I mean it’s simple science. But at least it’s now clear to everyone thanks to your remarkable powers of deduction, Holmes.
We are losing 49 percent of treated water through leaks before it reaches a tap. Irish Water admit this.
Now some maths: If we fix the pipes, we will have twice as much water as we currently need. This is easily enough, even allowing for population expansion, for the next 50 years.
This will cost billions, and we will have to pay for it through taxes. But once we do, why would we want to ‘conserve’ water? Should we ‘conserve’ clean air too? And why would we want to ‘invest’ (aka waste) billions on metering every household when there are far easier and cheaper ways to isolate household leaks? And millions on utility billing systems, and call centres, and consumer websites, for ever and ever?
1) We will never achieve 0% losses in pipes. Nowhere does. even cities in deserts where water is ridiculously expensive.
2) Even if there was (theoretically) enough treated water supply nationally, this does not mean that there is enough water in the right location. Think of it as analagous to there being ghost estates in Leitrim & a housing shortage in Dublin simultaneously.
Here we go again. The problem is leaks. Leaks on the network, nothing more or nothing less. You are getting annoying now.
Alan is that you?
Fixing leaks costs money.
You ignored my points anyway.
Wasn’t this the lad that spoke about his “legacy” when he was appointed Minister for the Environment?
Jesus wept.
I think he referred to Irish Water as his legacy. It’s somewhat fitting
…but he fixed the roads in Nenagh
Alan Kelly thought he had seen it all did he? Sounds about right, at his young age, and short time as a politician, he would be the kind to think he knows everything. Theres no words to describe how much i hate alan kelly. i really really hate him. He’s such a self-centred, contemptuous .. cant say the next word on BS.
Wish Gavan Reilly would climb out of Matt Cooper’s arsehole and find a snide voice of his own
Why pay for water three times, who organised the setting up of the Irish Water
Quango, who set about giving a contract to install water meters instead of fixing
leaks on main network, who wants to bring water to Dublin City where over half
of it is lost in leaks, who is responsible for the paying of 20 million Euros per
year to the ESB who have had profits of over 500 million just to extract water from
the Liffey and they wanted another 50 Million plus if there was extraction from
the Shannon…..what has been going on, is well connected and highly influential
promoters tried to muscle in on making a killing on water, however they overlooked one thing the electorate and the people who organised the campaign of protest…..as to Alan Kelly let him ask himself where is the Labour Party and
the debacle of Fine Gael grasping to hold power and actually having none.
Why not do a few more fist pumps, whilst roaring like a stuck pig, as you did at the election count, Alan? So much more authentic than this faux gravitas.