Irish Water

Deal to put Irish Water charges before the Dail opens door to Enda’s minority government…

Mick Fealty on April 27, 2016, 11:21 am

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If Fianna Fail have the deal I think they have, then they are quids in for supporting Enda Kenny at the head of a minority Fine Gael led government. Putting the contentious matter out to a commission of experts brought some levity from pol corrs who remember the FF leader’s reputation for long fingering tough decisions when he was Minister of Health. But this commission serves Mr Martin’s stated political interests (and a majority of current Dail parties) in a …

Water charges to become an intractable feature of the Republic’s future landscape?

Mick Fealty on March 29, 2016, 8:00 am

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Post-election, Irish Water is playing something of a rearguard action. In its own legal advice was leaked to the Irish Times suggests that any wriggle room for getting rid of Water Charges has disappeared… “The benefit of the derogation has been lost for all time, and cannot be revived by seeking to reverse the decision to introduce charges. “A very limited derogation to this default position is allowed . . . if it is established practice not to recover the …

Why is ‘Toxic’ Irish Water between 13% – 26% cheaper than ‘non toxic’ NI Water…?

Populist Watch Irl on January 29, 2016, 12:29 pm

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IS CHARGING BETTER: Last week Sinn Fein described Irish Water as a toxic entity. If it is toxic then how would one describe Northern Ireland Water [which they are in large part responsible for] costs somewhere between 13% – 27% more depending on which metric you apply.

Budget 2016 – An opportunity to ease the burden on squeezed classes

Johnny Fallon on October 8, 2015, 11:23 am

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In the second of our pre-budget series Longford based Independent Barbara Smyth outlines the measures she would like to see implemented to improve the lot of families and those struggling to cope. Continuous austerity budgets have seen the most vulnerable people in our society having to accept being the ones who suffered the most. Working families who have always paid their taxes, mortgages, bills and contributed most to our economy have seen their disposable income vanish. Child poverty increased while …

The Arena – Discussing Irish water, Banking Inquiry and Censorship

Johnny Fallon on July 30, 2015, 1:08 pm

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This week the Arena Political podcast takes a long hard look at Irish Water, the latest from the banking Inquiry and asks if we need laws to censor the internet. Take a listen and get in touch with us with any comments, suggestions or thoughts Johnny Fallon

End of the line for Irish Water?

Johnny Fallon on July 28, 2015, 5:42 pm

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Radio Producer and Presenter John O’Donovan argues that its time to wind up Irish Water. Eurostat , the EU statistics agency has today decided that the Governments spend must remain on the states exchequer balance sheet. This means we will face into an additional €500 million added to the national debt, the assumption up to now by the Government was that it would pass the Eurostat assessment, even though they had factored the cost into its Spring Statement. In what …

Irish Water: Metering helps us divert capital investment in the general network

Mick Fealty on April 1, 2015, 1:38 pm

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With the shock news that customers of Northern Ireland Water are actually already paying for their water [[Regardless of usage, or ability to pay… – Ed] RTE’s Mary Wilson spoke to Elizabeth Arnett (6 mins in) of Irish Water about its new First Fix scheme. It’s an initiative which allows them to prioritise and fix the worst leaks even when it is on the customer’s property, for free, which gave Ms Arnett a perfect opportunity to make a positive argument in favour of metering: Firstly it’s not good …

Is the Left being slowly being displaced by a new form of ‘Irish Poujadisme’?

Mick Fealty on February 28, 2015, 9:48 am

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Before I draw in for the weekend, there’s a very good piece by Noel Whelan in the Irish Times (€!) from yesterday which is well worth mentioning… It’s on the nature of protest, and its legitimate limits. In the tail of the piece he also raises another more political question, which he directs at the left-led protests against the installation of water meters in the Republic: which is about the protection of workers going about their business. First Whelan’s take …

Seanad Eireann’s pivotal role in Irish Water bill makes case for deeper reform…

Mick Fealty on December 17, 2014, 4:25 pm

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So, useless elite and out of touch is it? By a series of happy (or unhappy) accidents the government now has no majority in the Irish upper house. And by a further happy (or unhappy) accident the Seanad finds itself in a position to exercise real and substantial power of some critical amendments in an upcoming money bill. Gavan Reilly explains… …amendments are where things could get tricky. In the Dáil last week the government blocked amendments that many neutral …

Sinn Fein protest water meters in Dundalk, but have ensured they are installed in Newry?

Mick Fealty on November 27, 2014, 7:42 pm

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So, Sinn Fein didn’t order the continuation of the installation of 35,000 water meters in new build houses in Northern Ireland at a cost of £13.3 million? Well, no. The minister’s department did refuse to allow NI Water off the hook of putting water meters as it was required to do by law. Brian Stanley put it thus… Sinn Féin can only do what it can do at any point in time being in the power-sharing executive, and that situation …

Treating the Dail (and therefore the people) with disdain does not help govt’s #IrishWater case…

Mick Fealty on November 20, 2014, 9:47 am

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Here’s a still from the live feed from the Dail yesterday just as Fianna Fail Environment spokesman Barry Cowen called for an adjournment of the Dail until the Minister returned from briefing the press to hear what the opposition might have to say… [Decoded: the opposition sits to the right where the benches are full, and on government benches to the right there’s just three frontbenchers and the chief whip.] If you want to get straight to the action, you …

“Are you going to pay your water charges, Gerry?” – Redux

Pete Baker on November 3, 2014, 10:10 pm

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The Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, TD, would like to change his previous answer to the question. Again. Here’s his new new position on water charges “Sinn Féin is standing firmly with those families and hard pressed citizens who very simply cannot pay the Government’s water tax. As a mark of solidarity, I have decided that I will not pay this Government’s Water Tax. [added emphasis] To be fair, up until a month ago the Louth TD didn’t realise he would have …

Irish Water: “Today, the mass of the people are making a comeback.”

Mick Fealty on November 3, 2014, 10:45 am

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I remember the day the Luas opened. Vincent Browne was fulminating furiously on the gross inflation of costs involved, asking the age old question of why no one in journalism was keeping an eye on these runaway baselines which culminated in a tripling of the final cost from the original estimates. It struck me as a good question always to keep in the back pocket when considering southern politics. So why, when all of the matters pertaining to Irish Water …

Cartoon – Irish water leaves a sour aftertaste on the public palate

Brian Spencer on November 3, 2014, 8:26 am

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“Ah, Irish water? Very expensive high notes with a smack of bonus. Sour aftertaste on the public palate!” Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/

Irish Water a victim of a government’s haste to signal, rather than solve the problem.

Mick Fealty on October 20, 2014, 11:54 am

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So, Irish Water? As noted here at length, water is a controversial matter, especially when there is a faint hint that it is being prepared (as Northern Ireland Water undoubtedly was) for privatisation. In the case of Irish Water, it now seems their Chief Executive John Tierney (one of the few on the current board with any direct technical experience of the water industry) is under pressure to resign after a slew of bad stories hit press leaving the government …

“what you would have paid if it wasn’t for the fact that water charges had been cancelled.”

Mick Fealty on October 8, 2014, 3:35 pm

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This rough recording is from RTE’s Late Debate programme from last Tuesday. In it Deputy Pearse Doherty outlines how he thinks water is not charged for in Northern Ireland. “They actually get a notice every year which says this is the amount you would have paid if it wasn’t for the fact that water charges had been cancelled.” Except that the ‘notice’ Pearse mentions is in fact the local rate bill which informs householders in Northern Ireland which part of …

Irish Water: Just throwing money and comms at it won’t fix the problem.

Mick Fealty on January 29, 2014, 1:21 pm

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[Wicked problems are] social problems which are ill formulated, where the information is confusing, where there are many clients and decision-makers with conﬂicting values, and where the ramiﬁcations in the whole system are thoroughly confusing. – C. West Churchman You hardly need a crystal ball to see things are not going well for Irish Water. Its much smaller and less complex counterpart Northern Ireland Water has had four CEOs since 2007. A situation that’s been vacant now for four months, …