Tag Archives: Irish Water

90296280Poolbefg

[Former Dublin City Manager John Tierney, now head of Irish Water and Poolbeg incinerator plans]

This morning, Environment Editor of the Irish Times Frank McDonald reports on a local government audit into the money spent by Dublin City Council to relocate a firm in Dublin Port, to allow for the building of the Poolbeg incinerator.

Mr McDonald reports that Dublin City Council paid almost €22million to relocate cargo handlers firm, Westway Terminals Hibernian Ltd.The council was obliged to help Westway and pay for their new premises.

However, Mr McDonald reports that Dublin City Council paid nearly twice the original contract of €11.9million.

In total, the relocation of Westway cost €31million.

Meanwhile, he also reports that the audit looked at the contract between Dublin City Council and RPS, a contract which the European Commission subsequently found was in breach EU rules late last year and will be terminated on January 31.

Mr McDonald reported the local government auditor found financial management was weak while there were concerns raised about the lack of minutes recorded.

He reported:

“The auditor concluded: ‘it is evident that the financial management . . . has been weak’ and said ‘no proper classification of expenditure on an invoice basis was available to account for monies spent’ on Poolbeg by council management.

“’There is no evidence of monitoring of detailed budgets or financial forecasts . . . or that detailed monthly/quarterly reports were examined to control expenditure, apart from client representative summary reports presented to DCC management.’

“He said the project executive board – headed by former assistant city manager Matt Twomey – “did not meet on a formal basis and therefore no minutes of meetings were retained”.“

Meanwhile, on Prime Time last night, Fintan O’Toole also spoke about the RPS contract with Dublin City Council and the same audit referred to above, in light of the fact that the CEO of Irish Water John Tierney was hired just weeks after the audit was issued.

“John Tierney was the accounting officer, he was the person for whom the buck stopped in relation to that. So it would be very interesting to know was John Tierney asked, at his interview, about his record? Was he asked what he had learned about the hiring of consultants, was he asked what he had learned about major infrastructural projects and how they should be manager in the public interest? I suspect he probably wasn’t.“

Watch the full episode here

Previously: Incinerating Poolbeg

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)

HoganPT

Last night Environment Minister Phil Hogan appeared on RTÉ One’s Prime Time to talk about the Irish Water controversy.

Everything is fine, he assured presenter David McCullagh…

Phil Hogan: “There is a perception being created that this particular money is just being spent on just accountancy and solicitors’ reports, that is not the case and I think that Mr Tierney at the committee today laid that out very well, in terms of the essential infrastructure that’s required to set up a public utility company for water from scratch.”

David McCullagh: “Yeah, sure but what, I mean, TDs, backbench government TDs, TDs, like Barry Cowen [in studio], Fianna Fáil, and others in Opposition TDs, ask a simple, straightforward question ‘how much is being spent on consultancy in Irish Water?’ No answer comes back from the Government.”

Phil Hogan: “Well, what I do, is I don’t micro manage what’s happening in Irish Water. And I don’t, we as Government set down the policy position and the overall amount of money that has to be spent, to set up this particular public utility company. And deputies have an opportunity to bring in Irish Water before the committee on a regular basis, or as often as they wish. And I don’t believe that I, as Minister, or certainly Irish Water, are in any way, other than expecting the highest transparency.”

Watch interview in full here

Previously: Water Carrier

tierney

[John Tierney, head of Irish Water in front of TDs this afternoon]

Nk writes:
“{consultancy fees] Just crept up to 85 mill. Anyone opening a book on whether it’ll hit 100 mill before the week is out?”

Irish Water to spend €85m on consultants by 2015 (RTE)

accenture

Earlier this morning Fiach Kelly, of the Irish Times, reported that a briefing document sent by Irish Water to the Oireachtas environment committee – ahead of its 2.15pm meeting today with Irish Water CEO John Tierney – shows that Irish Water plans to spend over €80million on consultant or outside contractor costs by mid-2015.

Mr Kelly reports that the document show €44.8million will go to IBM, €17.2million to Accenture, €4.6million to Ernst & Young, €970,000 to McCann Fitzgerald solicitors, €2.9million to A&L Goodbody, €2.2million to KPMG, and €13.3million to 18 other contractors.

Meanwhile, Brian O’Connell joined Seán O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio One this morning to talk about a 12-week contract awarded to Accenture, one of the first contracts issued in relation to Irish Water, in May 2012.

Mr O’Connell reported that the contract was worth just over €398,689 and explained that, under EU procurement rules, if a contract goes over €400,000 there has to be an open competition. So, because this contract was €1,311 under the €400,000 threshold, there was no open competition.

However, there were issues raised internally about the contract.

Brian O’Connell: “I understand Seán that, at a senior level, some staff were not happy with how some contracts were being issued and awarded and had concerns that procedures, rules and guidelines around that, the May 2012 Accenture contract, was issued as a change to a pre-existing contract. So this is called a change request, and it related to a contract Bord Gáis had, with Accenture for unbundling. And that was part of an EU energy directive. Now unbundling was about separating ownership and operation of gas and networks, from supply of gas. Accenture had done a lot of work, on this separation. But because the sale of Bord Gáis Energy was decided upon, that effectively broke up the networks and the supplies so this May 2012 contract related to the setting up of Irish Water. I understand concerns were raised, at a later stage, around why there wasn’t an open competition held by Bord Gáis in the awarding of this particular contract considering that it did go very close to the €400,000 threshold.”

Seán O’Rourke: “And originally it was a Bord Gáis contract, but which was, if you like, extra work bolted on for the establishment of Irish Water. Now, do we know Brian whether an investigation was conducted? Or what the final amount of the contract was?”

Brian O’Connell: “Well my understanding is that the issue was considered so serious that it was brought directly to the attention of the new CEO Michael McNicholas in May 2013 and that Bord Gáis put across a number of points in defence of the awarding of the contract. An investigation was carried out Seán. The complaint was not upheld. The defence put forward I think, as I understand it, was around the urgency with which the contract had to be issued. And the nature of the work meant that, the company argued, that Accenture was best placed to fulfil the contract. So there are a number of exceptions, where you don’t have ot go to full and open competition. Urgency would have been…”

O’Rourke: “So, these concerns were raised internally, by senior staff, and the investigation was conducted internally as well?”

O’Connell: “As I understand it, and the complaints weren’t upheld. Now this does raise a number of questions. It raises questions around how many contracts may have been awarded under previous arrangements between Bord Gáis and consultants, that would have pre-dated the setting up of Irish Water? It raises questions about why didn’t Bord Gáis go to a full and open competition especially, considering Seán, there was a potential that this contract could go over €400,000, considering that it was so close to the threshold. Bord Gáis were awarded the Irish Water contract on the basis that they had a lot of capabilities in-house.”

O’Rourke: “Yeah, this is something that I think came out very strongly on the [RTÉ] This Week programme, [journalist] John Burke there got hold of a document, a 20-page document which explained that there was a lot of stuff, whether it was about transformation or about technology and billing systems, and so forth, which was already being done by Bord Gáis. They were the guys who knew how to handle this stuff.”

O’Connell: “Yeah, and Bord Gáis were saying ‘look, we have a lot of in-house capabilities here already. We’re best-placed to get this gig because of that. Now, some of the items that Accenture were paid for in this contract included ‘defining plans to design and implement governance plans’, ‘external communications plans’ and what they call a ‘roadmap to deliver IT systems’. Now, obviously I’ve put a series of detailed questions to Irish Water yesterday, asking them things like how long this particular May 2012 contract actually ran for? What the final amount of the contract was? How many subsequent contracts, for example, the company was awarded? And whether these went to full and open competitions? Bord Gáis or Irish Water have said to me that they won’t be making any comment on my specific questions before an appearance by Irish Water executives before the Environment Committee today.”

Separately, this morning Irish Water released a statement saying all contracts awarded by Irish Water and Bord Gáis, in the establishment of Irish Water, are fully compliant  with EU public sector procurement guidelines.

Listen back here.

Irish Water spend on consultants and contractors will top €80 million (Fiach Kelly, Irish Times)

00136470

[Leo Varadkar during the Hell and Back event in Wicklow last year]

Saturday…

Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar said the €50 million “seems extraordinary” and more detail was needed.

Irish Water Faces Criticism Over 50 Million Spend (irish Times, Saturday)

Monday…

Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar has backed Irish Water, commenting that “in time” people will see the benefits of the new authority.

Varadkar: People Will See Benefits Of Irish Water (Irish Times, today)

(Laura Hutton/Photocall ireland)

IrishWater

Further to the Irish Water debacle.

Shane Coleman and  Ivan Yates on Newstalk this morning discussed Irish Water’s senior management appointments…

Shane Coleman: “In a statement to me, on Friday, Ivan, pointed out that all senior managers in Irish Water were subject to open recruitment and there seems to be two types of recruitment processes in Ireland, one is for specialist roles, they are roles in asset management, capital – they’re very technical kind of jobs there. Apparently they are advertised to employees in local authorities and Bord Gáis and in the Department of Environment, before being advertised openly on the website. Now the company stressed all other jobs in the organisation are advertised publically on recruitment websites and newspapers, and so on. 220 of the appointments have been made so far, including nine on the senior management team. This is particularly interesting because, going through the senior management, if I can go through them very quickly…”

Ivan Yates: “You say there’s a clear pattern?”

Coleman: “Well, there’s a significant number of them that are from, the majority of them are from either local authorities or the semi-State sector. For example, obviously, John Tierney, you mentioned, he joined from Dublin City Council, his head of operations and maintenance, Ray O’Dwyer, joined from, well he joined from the Government’s efficiency and reform programme but he had been the Waterford County Manager, of course we know. John Dempsey, the head of finance in Irish Water, joined from Killkenny County Council; Angela Costelloe, the head of human resources, joined from Dublin City Council. Gerry Galvin, the chief technical officer, joined from the Department of Environment; Paul O’Donoghue is the head of customer operations, he joins from Bord Gáis, to which of course is Irish Water’s parent company. And then two of the other senior managers joined from RPS. Now RPS is a major international consulting firm, energy and other major infrastructural projects. They had a minor role in the establishment of Irish Water but they also advised Dublin City Council on the Poolbeg Terminal Treatment Project and incinerator in Ringsend, when John Tierney was [Dublin] city manager. They were paid over €30million over a period of a decade for that role as client representative. So two of the senior management come from there. Elizabeth Arnott, head of communications and corporate services, joined from, well she joined from Irish Water programme, but she previously worked with RPS and head of management, head of asset management, also joined from the Irish Water programme. Again he previously had a role with RPS. Irish Water at pains to stress, both the former RPS executives had left RPS before they actually joined Irish Water. So, if you go through the nine, you’ve got four from local authorities, two from RPS which obviously had strong links with both Irish Water and Dublin City Council before, one from the Department of the Envrionment, one from Bord Gáis and only one, exclusively, from you would say, the private sector: Fergus Collins, head of capital delivery, he worked for a large, for a number of large-scale civil engineering contractors. Now, Ivan, it’s important to stress, all these people are wel qualified, there’s no doubt about it, if you look at their CVs…”

Yates: “But they look like insider appointments?”

Coleman: “Well that’s the suggestion that’s been made, it’s a suggestion that we should say has been completely refuted by Irish Water, but I imagine this will be an issue that will be raised at the Environment Committee meeting tomorrow.”

Irish Water defends recruitment, despite only one senior private sector appointment

Previously: The Water Carrier

Chief Running Water

Hogan

[From left: Principal Advisor at the Department of the Environment, Gerry Galvin, Environment Minister Phil Hogan and Minister of State for the New Era Project, Fergus O’Dowd, at a press briefing regarding the establishment of Irish Water in April 2012]

Labour TD, from Louth, Ged Nash joined Richard Crowley to discuss the €50million spent on consultants by Irish Water, on RTÉ’s News At One earlier.

During their discussion, the Labour TD lamented the fact that he, as a member of the Dáil and the Public Accounts Committee, knows very little about how Irish Water was set up.

Perhaps, Mr Crowley suggested, Environment Minister Phil Hogan could shed some light on the matter…

Ged Nash: “I think people were astonished when the figures were revealed yesterday that €50million was spent on consultant fees alone, on the initial set-up of Irish Water. Now, in justifying that, John Tierney, the man that runs Irish Water said, and I quote ‘this represented value for money’. Well, if Mr Tierney reckons that that represents money, let’s have a public discussion about that. As it stands at the moment, Richard, the position is that you have as much information as I have. And I feel as a member of the Dáil and as a member of the Public Accounts Committee that I need to have more information about how this money is spent and the public need to have confidence about that that money was spent in an appropriate way.”

Richard Crowley: “But what I think surprised a lot of people, Ged Nash, is that this money was going outside the company anyway to so-called consultants and that’s a very vague term, we’re not quite sure what it means. But we thought that these guys were given the job because they knew what they were doing. Why then are they farming it out to somebody else and paying for it?”

Nash: “Well this is a question I think that needs to be put to John Tierney and indeed as well to the Energy Regulator who will be setting the price of tariffs after a period of public consultation this year, it’s important we have that information. If the Irish Water company feels it needs the expertise, they’re quite entitled to buy that expertise in but why didn’t they do that in an open and transparent way and in an accountable way? The fundamental point for me, Richard, is and I think for the people I represent, is that we must have public confidence in this public utility. Another important point to make is that it is a public utility, it is answerable to the Dáil, it’s answerable to the Oireachtas, and we need to have that public confidence from the get-go. Old ways of doing business are no longer acceptable, there needs to be full disclosure in relation to all expenditure from the, sorry, from the operations and I think that’s an important point to make.”

Crowley: “But it’s all very well to huff and puff now but the money is gone. The stable door is [bolted], there’s no point in closing it now. It’s been spent.”

Nash: “I think that’s why people are astonished at the level of expenditure. As I said, John Tierney stated, quite categorically, that he believes this represents value for money. A case has not been made, as far as I can see, to the Oireachtas. It might very well have been made to the relevant ministers, as to why this money should be paid. But the fundamental point is that all of this information should be in the public domain, as to whether or not this represents value for money or not. John Tierney reckons that it does but I think it should be up to the Oireachtas to decide whether that’s the case or not.”

Crowley: “But it was your government that set it up in this manner and it was your government that allowed, if you like, this money to be spent and now we’re in the business of saying ‘well, where did it go? what did you spend it on?’ But it’s too late.”

Nash: “I think the point is that we are, I think you’ll agree with me Richard, we are operating in something of a vacuum at the moment because there’s very limited information. My point, my central point is that all of this information should have been in the public domain in any event. It shouldn’t be a case of requiring John Tierney to say it in an interview or through some other mechanism or format. The information should be available. Irish Water should represent a new way of doing business. In other words, make sure that all this relevant information is in the public domain from the start cause if we are to have public confidence in Irish Water from the start, then it needs to find a new way of doing business, to ensure that is the kind of focus and transparency which we would expect. And we very much welcome the fact by the way that this is a public utility in public ownership but it needs to behave in that way.”

Crowley: “But surely, and this is the point again, surely the company boss, Mr Tierney or somebody else should have given these numbers, should have given a business plan to the minister involved and said ‘this is what we’re intending to do, this is how we’re intending to spend the money’ and then minister then says ‘fine, go ahead with that’ or ‘please don’t’ or maybe ‘you should look at that again’. But, really it’s too late now.”

Nash: “Yeah, we are working with limited information at present. It may very well have been the case that there was some communication between Mr Tierney and the minister of the relevant government department and indeed the regulator or someone, we don’t know that and that’s my fundamental point. We need answers to these questions and the best way we can secure and get those answers is through an examination of this issue and the Dáil Public Account Committee which has shown in recent months we can get to the bottom of…”

Crowley: “Phil Hogan, Phil Hogan could enlighten us to some degree surely, couldn’t he, Ged Nash?”

Nash: “Well that could very well be the case..we need to ensure.”

Crowley: “But it is the case.”

Nash: “Yeah, well, he’s in effect the line minister, he may have information that he can contribute to this particular debate, this discussion, in the interests of transparency. The Department of the Environment, although the Government in effect is the line department but the minister would have a degree of responsibility in that. Irish Water, of course, is a public utility. It is answerable to the Dáil. We must make sure that we obtain the answers in the interests of public confidence in this company.”

Listen here

UPDATE: On the 3pm news, RTÉ reported Mr Hogan saying:

“These particular costs have been openly tendered for and they have been verified by the [energy] regulator and they’ve been verified by the National Treasury Management Agency. But I do think that definitely that there is certain concern about this amount of money. But it was always set out, two years ago, that there was going to be a sum of money required to set up this new company.”

00141767[Head of Irish Water, John Tierney]

Independent TD Shane Ross joined Sean O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio One this morning to discuss the €50million Irish Water has spent on consultants, so far.

Those paid include Ernst and Young, IBM, Accenture and Oracle.

During their discussion, Mr Ross said it was unacceptable that head of Irish Water John Tierney went on radio  yesterday discussing the cost without breaking the expense down in detail.

He also reiterated Richard Boyd Barrett’s claim made on Morning Ireland this morning, saying some of this money could have been used ‘to line the pockets of rich institutions’.

Shane Ross: “It’s completely unacceptable, it puts the whole resentment against water rates right back on the agenda and it makes those people, those people who are spending so much money already, which they can’t afford, deeply, deeply hurt and the fact…”

Sean O’Rourke: “But again, if..”

Ross: “…that the money is squandered, or apparently squandered in this way.”

O’Rourke: “If they get the set-up right, these are one-off starting costs. OK, there may be some care and maintenance issues but then it’s done and they don’t have to be revisiting it, time and time again.”

Ross: “Well most starting costs, Sean, are absolutely fine, if you can afford them. At the moment the people who are going to be asked to pay these starting costs, can’t afford them.”

O’Rourke: “But you cannot start off the biggest State enterprise, since the establishment of the ESB, we’re led to believe, and expect it to be done for nothing can you?”

Ross: “But that begs the question, why couldn’t it have been a different sort of funding. Why did they actually have to do it this way? Why couldn’t they look for a public private partnership here, to raise some money…”

O’Rourke: “Because they knew there would be a huge cry, as you well know, about the privatisation question.”

Ross: “You wouldn’t privatise it, you’d have a State majority which, you would have private money in there aswell, invest it, invested carefully and invest it in order to be vigilant and show people we’re not wasting money and not spending State money, as quangos always do, at will and regardless, regardless of the wishes of those people who are actually paying for it.”

O’Rourke: “But coming back to the consultants question, Shane. I mean the alternative might be to hire a load of people, give them jobs for life and, you know, index-linked pensions, that are paid for from taxpayers’ money saecula saeculorum, I mean this is initially expensive. They get in, they do the job and they’re gone, end of.”

Ross: “That is something which the Public Accounts Committee will have to look at, you may well be right there Seán, there may be other alternatives which will be extremely expensive as well. But I don’t believe that this sort of spending should go unchecked, unexplained to the people who are paying for it, and it needs to be, every single piece needs to come out under the Freedom of Information, in a Dáil committee so we know where the money is going, so we ensure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again and we don’t allow them to spend money without being accountable to government. When Eamon Gilmore is surprised at this, what do you think the rest of us feel?”

O’Rourke: “Do you allow for the possibilty that every cent of this may be money wisely and well and carefully spent?”

Ross: “No, I don’t, I think that’s very unlikely. There’s a pattern of quangos, in the past, of always being able to hire consultants at will and bring out their chequebook and spend huge sums of money. No I don’t. I think there undoubtedly will be huge savings to be made in there.”

Listen back here

Major firms among those paid €50m by Irish Water (Irish Times)

Irish Water chief says €50m consultants’ fees good value (Newstalk)

(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

Meanwhile….

BdnIGMvCAAARyqw

John Tierney and Ivor Callelly.

Uncanny

Thanks Aidan

00141775
[John Tierney, managing director of Irish Water]

 

Previously: Chief Running Water

(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

Frank grant( Frank McDonald, Environment Editor of the Irish Times, top, and Jerry Grant, of Irish Water, above)

Irish Water, which was established in March of this year, will take over the responsibility for providing water and waste water treatment from 34 local authorities on a phased basis, starting next January, over the next five years.

After that, Irish Water will be responsible for all water services and all capital and investment decisions regarding Ireland’s water infrastructure.

Last night Jerry Grant, head of asset management at Irish Water, and Frank McDonald, Environment Editor with The Irish Times, appeared with host Robert Shortt on Prime Time to talk about the future of Irish Water, in the context of the current water shortages being experienced in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow.

Frank McDonald: “It has to be remembered that water, OK, we think of Ireland as having loads of loads of water. It falls out of the sky every day nearly. But the truth of the matter is that that’s just raw water. The water has to be treated. We also have to deal with sewage and treat that as well. So, you know, all of that will require money and a huge new revenue stream will be the water rates that we’re going to have to start paying, I think from next year onwards. And I think it’s very ironic that just at the point at which water rates are finally being introduced which, in my view, are completely justified, the responsibility for water is being whipped off the local authorities and transferred to a new semi-State company, in a further move to centralise and already highly-centralised…”

Robert Shortt: “Why is that not a good idea, given that the record or local authorities in managing water assets is, at best, patchy?”

McDonald: “Well, I think that you have to look at it in context. I mean Jerry referred to the history of underinvestment. There has been a history of underinvestment. And there’s a whole lot of plans that exist, that haven’t actually been implemented because there wasn’t the money to pay for them. And I think that obviously, one of the major things that Irish Water is going to have to fastrack now which is basically the plan that has been kicking around now for the last eight years or so, which is to take water from the River Shannon and bring it to Dublin. Now, that sounds like a smash and grab raid by the capital on another part of rural Ireland. But in fact it isn’t really because what would happen is the water would be siphoned out of the Shannon, taken to a reservoir in the Midlands and then from there transferred to Dublin to the treatment plant.”

Shortt: “That’s a big project and we’ll get to that in a minute but if I could just go back to the restaurateur in Tanya Sillems’ report. There’s been a lot of talk about compensation for water users who experience a problem in their supply. Does Irish Water have any worked out policy, when you’ll be running as a commercial company, what will you say to business owners when, for whatever reason in the future, the water supply isn’t there. And, indeed, the homeowners who are going to be paying water charges?”

Jerry Grant: “Well first of all, of course we’re acutely responsible, conscious of the consumers of water. And, again, in the criticality of water to everyday life and to all kinds of activities that was eminently clear..”

Shortt: “Will you give them compensation if the water is not delivered?”

Grant: “First of all, for us, the important thing is a secure revenue stream. The regulator, the CER, will have a very strict regime of supervision of us and we’ll certainly make sure that we meet certain service standards and will certainly take money from us if we don’t meet those standards. In the first instance…”

Shortt: “So, is that a ‘yes’ then?”

Grant: “It’s a matter for the regulator ultimately as to how that protection to the consumer is catered for. But the really important point is that we have a secure, sustainable and adequate revenue stream, to leverage the investment we need. The major scheme for Dublin has been talked about but we have much more than that.”

Shortt: “So where is the money going to come from?”

Grant: “Well, clearly, as I said we have to establish our revenue stream. I would refer to some of the comments Frank made in relation to the local authorities and to make the point, that it is clear that it is not possible to finance all the things that need to be done on an authority by authority basis. We must have a national asset management approach…”

Shortt: “Sorry, what does that mean? Does that mean you’re going to borrow money?

Grant: “Well it does, yes.”

Shortt: “Because presumably you’re not going to get all the investment you need from the water rates that are coming in on the water charges.”

Grant: “No. We have a significant deficit to make up. We have to understand the risks and clearly there are risks, there are unacceptable levels of risk of failure in both water supply and waste water. We have to understand those. We have to stretch the revenues that will be available to us, to do the most we can, across the country so that everybody has an equal chance, of having an acceptable water supply and waste water. But yes we will have to borrow money and we can only do that credibly when we have a, first of all, an organisation that is seen to be in control of the service, that’s seen to know what it’s about and has a secure revenue base on which to leverage that borrowing.”

Shortt: “Frank McDonald, is that the advantage of Irish Water? That you have this big organisation that has, you know, some punching power, that it can borrow in ways that the local authorities couldn’t? Would you accept that there’s a good idea from that point of view?”

McDonald: “I think that’s fundamentally the reason why it’s being set up, is to provide an organisation into which money can be funnelled, through public private partnership schemes and other stuff like that. I mean for example that idea of taking water from the Shannon to Dublin is clearly a big PPP project possibility and that’s the most likely way it will be procured. So it would be procured, in effect, at no expense to the State, to the Exchequer. It will be procured on the basis of private sector investment but with the control over the asset being maintained by the semi-State company Irish Water.”

Later

Shortt: “Those glossy TV ads, how much did they cost?”

Grant: “I have no idea but they’re part of the project of converting the consumers of water in Ireland to customers. I think we have a very real difficulty in…”

Shortt: “I think will people be very, very keenly aware that they’re going to be paying water charges next year, they might get a little bit irate seeing these ads for water on a night when they can’t even make a cup of tea.”

Grant: “I think it is an incredibly important message we have to deliver that Irish Water is on the pitch to serve the people of Ireland and to deliver for them, now and into the future. We expect, in our recovery in the Irish economy, we know for experience when recovery comes, demand for water will grow, we must be able to meet that. And we have the raw water resources to do that.”

Shortt: “Finally, very briefly Frank, are you convinced? Will Irish Water work?”

McDonald: “I think it may work. But I think that if people are going to be paying water charges for their water they will want to be supplied with water. And they won’t be prepared to accept any excuse for not supplying it.”

What could possibly go wrong?

Watch in full here