Irish Water must step up to the plate and refocus

23 October 2014

by Cllr Joe Costello

Irish Water has not been a success to date.  It has failed to connect with the public in any meaningful way.  Irish Water has become an expression of derision.  It has provided staff with luxury offices and is already contemplating a comprehensive performance-related bonus across its management team.  It has failed to justify the buy-in of expensive consulting services and external expertise when its parent company, Bord Gais, was selected as the most appropriate body to facilitate the establishment of Irish Water. It has failed to communicate its role to the public and it has confused the entire country in relation to its charging services.

Irish Water has no credibility.  It must refocus itself and step up to the plate. That being said, there is no doubt that the creation of a national public utility will ultimately be of benefit to the Irish people.  The previous organisation of water services in Ireland was a disaster. The 34 separate authorities that operated water services were unable or unwilling to exploit the economies of scale that were available and they failed dismally to invest in our water infrastructure.

We are all too aware of how this lack of investment has led to the water supply in some areas not meeting the most basic standards. The lack of investment by Roscommon County Council over many years has resulted in almost 22,000 customers on boil water notices for up to four years.  That will now be addressed through the advent of Irish Water by the end of this year.

Moreover, residents in a housing estate, St. Brendan’s Park in Tralee, still face lead levels more than ten times the permitted level after Kerry County Council failed to replace old lead mains pipes, that is three years after the local authority had been informed of the health risk to every man, woman and child in the area.

A unified public utility with secure funding will be better placed to ensure adequate resources are invested in infrastructure.  Moreover, a unified public utility should result in significant efficiencies.  For example, the creation of Scottish Water resulted in efficiencies that brought about an almost 40% reduction in operating costs in Scotland. 

With time, a properly functioning Irish Water will help to transform water supply and wastewater treatment in Ireland. Unfortunately, previous governments underinvested in our water infrastructure. It is now essential that we deliver the level of infrastructure we need to meet demographic, economic and environmental requirements in the future.  The development of a unified, publicly owned water utility in the shape of a renewed Irish Water will help secure our long-term economic development and enhance water conservation. 

Figures I received in reply to a Parliamentary Question last week show the shortfall in investment over the last decade. Irish Water will be investing €100 million in infrastructure in the next year. This is more than the entire amount invested by the Fianna Fáil/Green coalition during the entire Celtic Tiger years.

The introduction of water and waste charges is a product of the Troika deal negotiated by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party in 2010.  However, it is most unfortunate that the charge should be introduced after the Troika has departed and after the Government has delivered its first recovery budget ending years of austerity.

Inevitably, the hard pressed citizen feels mugged just when he was told there was light at the end of the tunnel. It is true that water is a basic human right.  Without it we could not survive.  And like food, that other basic human right which is essential for human survival, it does not come free. It has to be paid for in the supermarket or the corner shop. So let us dispense with the spurious argument that water is a human right and therefore it should be free.

Unfortunately, the charging and allowance structure devised is complex, confusing and doesn’t adequately reflect the principle of water conservation.  For the next nine months the charge will be a crude assessed charge.  Only in twelve months’ time will the first metered bill arrive reflecting the household use.  Even then tens of thousands of homes will still not have meters installed. It is not a satisfactory situation.

The Minister for the Environment has stated that the Irish Water project is the single biggest in the history of the State since the electrification of the country in the 1920s and 1930s. 

Additional funding mechanisms must be found to address the enormous challenges of providing a quality water service to the entire country as the people emerge from a long winter of discontent.

There is still work to be done by the Irish Government to streamline the utility and to soften the charges.