Uisce Éireann kicking it right out of the park

Atlantic Dawn

Wow, what a time to be alive…

• 344 staff on over €100k a year
• Profits rose by over 50% for 2023 to €378.56m
• Bonus pay for Uisce Éireann staff rose 17pc to €10.57m in 2023

https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/bonus-pay-for-uisce-eireann-staff-rose-17pc-to-1057m-last-year-annual-report-reveals/a1870741801.html

Oscar_Madison

Uisce Éireann- taking the piss

lawred2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058357706/uisce-eireann-kicking-it-right-out-of-the-park

Profits?

How exactly are they funded?

lawred2

Revenues were made up of €1.06bn in government subvention payments for domestic water billing, non-domestic revenues of €245.46m, and new-connection revenues, which almost doubled to €246.84m.

Haha. Imagine using the term profit when 66% of your revenue is direct from the government. Orwellian.

dashoonage

and yet i am 19 months boiling water in Limerick. ive actually given up hope ill ever be able to use my tap water again.

TinyMuffin

weren’t they responsible for the fish kill in cork a couple of weeks ago. Bonus for that.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316496#Comment_122316496

Commercial water is paid for

Cluedo Monopoly

The superquango Irish Water was set up to fail by FG. Nice dollop of cronyism, corruption and excess thrown in for good measure.

This is what Alan Dukes (Fine Gael) said in 2014.

"A glorious, god-awful mess has been made of Irish Water, we've ended up with a system now that no rational person would have invented if they had sat down to put this kind of system together."

whisky_galore

I refuse to call them by anything other than Irish Water.

Feeble rebranding attempt to put their shítty origins behind them. And they're still shít.

Cluedo Monopoly

This is evidence that Irish Water superquango has not worked.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2024/0612/1454285-ireland-water-quality/

Water quality in Ireland is not improving overall, according to a report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The report - 'Water Quality in 2023: An Indicators Reports' - said improvements are being seen in some rivers and lakes but they are being offset by declines elsewhere. 

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316719#Comment_122316719

This.. exactly this! No doubt cost a fortune to rebrand (at our expense) too!

It's like the Gardai renaming the Traffic Corps to "Roads Policing" in the wake of the penalty points scandal - not fooling anyone lads.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316719#Comment_122316719

I wonder what the rebranding cost and which consultants were hired to roll it out 😉

bigroad

Irish Water ,RTE,The HSE.The RSA,

Will I go on or is that enough for now.

Its a great country if you have loads of money and move in the right circles.

But for the rest of us just keep paying your taxes to an incompidant Government who will waste your money and give it away to people from other countries who are basically having a nice holiday on your coin

Wanderer78

…dont worry folks, plenty of ffg voters out there, so tis another ffg government, yippeeee…..

BLFOTR

You get the government and services you voted for and deserve end of story. Irish people love the chancers and the incompetent. It's what we do, reward incompetency.

Cookie_Monster

Surely if they're making such profits that means they're not investing in infrastructure at a high enough rate and either need to substantially increase this or hand the money back to govt.

How can they justify bonuses when water quality is NOT improving?

Busman Paddy Lasty

Uisce Eireann lol. Did someone get a promotion for that or get fired ha ha.

I read the EPA press release before the article. It was 90% focused on agriculture so probably not the best footing for calling out the quango incompetence.

JVince

I always laugh when people have a faux annoyance about something they haven't a clue about.

Most of the better paid staff are expert engineers who would easily get the same money in any company

Some are also "hand over" staff from the councils.

Yep, water quality has not seen a dramatic increase because it wasn't too bad in the first place, but also the billions needed are not there because no-one wants to pay for it.

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316824#Comment_122316824

Because the intention was never to improve the actual water in the first place. It was setup as a shell to "manage" people and duties that were already being performed by the council, and to get the population used to paying (again - because it's not as though those council staff were free!) for basic water as a product before FG sold it off down the line.

geographica

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058357706/uisce-eireann-kicking-it-right-out-of-the-park

An ffffing joke but us thicks take it

(Like this return scam)

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316872#Comment_122316872

lots of poorly informed people at the time and doesn't seem to have changed. You would be amazed how many "expert" on Irish water still don't know commercial water is paid for, anyway

The Irish system is crippled, pipes are old and in reality needs a total overhaul.

After the crash the option was to save money, when looking across Europe most countries have charges and that is why the push was to create a company to safe guard the future of water in Ireland and to reduce government spend in the area

Of course people spread lots of nonsense, history is history and Irish Water was taken back in as a government entity.

One of the most important things people need to live is water, yet that was the one thing people went after :-)

SuperBowserWorld

They talked about needing billions to fund water infrastructure, and then they drop billions onto the national debt, at the drop of a hat, for covid, "refugees", children's hospital, ...

We are lucky people went and protested. Otherwise we'd have an extra dose of fear and anxiety every time we turned on the tap, or had a shower, while watching the lashing rain outside.

Honestly the government are terrible are managing money and costing things. I don't exactly know what they are for. The guy who was "Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform" is now an EU commisioner.

They should set up a department for "Burning Money" or whatever the Irish translation of that is…

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316910#Comment_122316910

Predictable.. always the same posters with the same lines.

I wasn't talking about commercial water supplies and you're well aware of that. The rest of that post just reads like a press release of the day.

But the results are clear. Water quality is no better overall (as validated by that EPA report above) despite 10 years of Irish Water. This was simply another FG-led privitisation scam that didn't work out on this occasion because they actually managed to annoy people so much that tens of thousands marched in protest, and even more just refused to engage with the new shell company.

Don't bother replying. I've heard it all or can predict it all already.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316934#Comment_122316934

Let's not forget that FG had plans to nationalise Irish Water too.

Dr.Tom

Is anyone on board with me in thinking Uisce Eireann are unfortunate to be taking over historically badly managed water systems and treatment plants from years and years of lazy local authorities (county and city councils)?

Padre_Pio

100k in engineering or management wouldn't be unusual.

They're a profit, unlike many other semi state companies.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316944#Comment_122316944

… ah common conservative tactic, underfund, even defund critical services, to allow them to a serious level of disrepair, aiding the process towards future privatisation, we re watching it all play out across the pond with thames water……

timmyntc

It makes sense to have 1 standard body managing water and sewage infrastructure across the country, rather than every council doing it differently.

It also makes sense to charge for water because 1) it needs to be paid for, and 2) paying out of general taxation runs the risk of water budget being cut for political or budgetary reasons.

What did not make sense was fully privatising water which was FGs intent - attempting to offload Irish Water to Denis O'Brien and other FG cronies.

Uisce Eireann should remain a semi state like ESB, so it has it's own ability to raise debt for infrastructure and can charge for usage - the alternative is similar to when councils ran water and sewage, which is why our network is so sh*tty (literally). Leaks galore, lead pipes, insufficient capacity (affects house building viability) and raw sewage discharged into watercourses.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316934#Comment_122316934

Water quality is better since Irish Water was created

yes I agree

The creation of Irish Water was driven because of the crash. No matter which party was in government it would have been created. Again I refer to my previous about I don't vote for FG but Im not stupid enough to blame them for something they had little control over.

"Don't bother replying" because I am happy in my own echo chamber. 😂

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316736#Comment_122316736

A good few €k to design a logo a child could have come up with.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316966#Comment_122316966

The councils running it was a disaster, absolute disaster. The people complaining about Irish water never had to deal with it so have no idea.

Uisce Eireann will remain a state owned, they have only completed the full detachment from Ervia etc.

Ireland will continue to run for years, then it will all turn into a big f**king mess and our water system will be terrible. Then everyone will come out crying "why didn't they tell us?" "why didn't we invest in our water system?" etc etc etc

At this stage the plan is to push more water into Dublin because it is cheaper than fixing the actual issues

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316966#Comment_122316966

Yeah I agree on the whole. People complained about the setup of Irish Water and being wasteful of money etc but then went on to force the government of the day to commit to funding them centrally. So now they are not answerable to the public, have a nice stream of guaranteed revenue coming on - what's not to like.

It should always have set up like the ESB etc, a semi state supplying a service that the public pay by use. It was a complete no brainer but between the arrogance of Phil Hogan/ FG and the opportunism of SF and Paul Murphy etc, somehow we managed to f** it right up.

Fr Tod Umptious

People seem to forget that the whole concept of Irish Water came from the post crash bailout agreed by FF and the EU, IMF etc.

Domestic water charges were to be introduced as part of the process and Irish Water would be the vehicle for these charges.

FF and the Troika agreed this while the 2007-2011 FF/Green Party government was in power.

And when FG came to power in 2011 they continued with what was agreed as part of the bailout.

Then in the 2016 general election when FF were struggling in the polls FF decided they were against the very water charges they agreed to implement.

The public responded in kind and gave them a huge boost at the polls and as a result FG formed a minority government with the support of FF and water charges were binned.

BLFOTR

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316867#Comment_122316867

We do pay for it already. It's called tax.

lawred2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316650#Comment_122316650

About 1/6th of revenue.

Geuze

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316824#Comment_122316824

That reflects a poor understanding of accounting.

Capital expenditure does not reduce profits.

Ryanair could purchase 100x aircraft, that does not reduce their profits.

Profits are the difference between revenue and costs.

Think of it like this, if a lnadlord repays their mortgage, does that affect their rental profits? No.

Now, the depreciation of capital assets does reduce profits.

Economics101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316961#Comment_122316961

Daft remark. Irish Water took over the clapped-out Local Authority water systems. Not a matter of conservatism , just a matter of the non-achieving, culture of neglect that pervades local government in Ireland.

And the main reason why Irih Water need such a huge subvention is that the far Left in Irish politics sabotaged water charges. Irish Water in its present guise was never an "FFG" project; it's a product of the free-lunch mentality of so many Irish politicians, especially on the Left

I.am.Putins.raging.bile.duct

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316716#Comment_122316716

I know a family that are at the top of IW and they are nothing but scumbags. They are a drug dealing/security/biker outfit that went legit in the 00s. Quisling animals driven by hatred and greed.

BrianD3

Regardless of how/why it was setup and if FG intended to privatise it, Irish Water seems to be doing an OK job at the moment. Before Irish Water there had been decades of shambolic underinvestment with 31 local authorities doing their own thing. Treatment plants close to each other but because they were in different counties, no pooling of resources, caretakers, engineers etc. inefficiencies in terms of procurement, admin and everything else.

Anyway, most people don't think about water, its a boring topic. Where does water come from? The tap. Where does my sh*te go? The toilet. End of conversation - unless you want to impose a usage charge.

The posts on here about the lack of improvement in water quality are not really fair to Irish Water. Irish Water wastewater plants are sources of pollution but as said they are upgrading them and it is generally accepted that agriculture is the most significant source of water pollution.

Other sources include domestic septic tanks. Improving water quality means enforcing water quality legislation, carrying out inspections, prosecuting polluters etc which is the responsibility of the EPA and County Councils and is labour intensive work. AFAIK the EPA has prosecuted Irish Water on a few occasions. If anyone wants to understand more why water quality is not improving, ask what the county councils are doing (or not doing due to gross under resourcing and probably politics) on agricultural and septic tank pollution. On the septic tanks they have a specific (small) number of inspections that they have to do each year and some don't even manage that. At the rate they are going, it would take over 250 years to inspect every domestic system in the country

https://www.epa.ie/news-releases/news-releases-2024/failure-to-fix-faulty-septic-tanks-is-a-risk-to-human-health-and-the-environment-and-cant-continue-says-epa.php

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122317908#Comment_122317908

…no its not, again, same tactic that was used across the pond, again, thames water!

…the free lunch is that it makes it easier to sell off a public asset, packaging it nicely for example if another future bailout is required, common imf tactic, thats been used across the world….

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122316966#Comment_122316966

Uisce Eireann should remain a semi state like ESB, so it has it's own ability to raise debt for infrastructure and can charge for usage 

I mean, this literally was the intention.

They were stopped from doing it cause vast swathes of people assumed it was all a conspiracy instead.

Gusser09

How are they making money? I dont pay for water. Neither does anyone i know. Is it solely from commercial customers? If so then why arent revenue just collecting it. Or the local council.

**** stinks.

Oh an don the expert engineers. Ask me hole. I know how these places work. Quangos and public bodies. They'll be as indifferent to their jobs as most public servants are. Dont be fooled.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122318221#Comment_122318221

Ah now the cronyism around how contracts were awarded was something else in the early days of IW. REDACTEDs Siteserv initial sale, debt writedown and then the contract award for IW meter installations was scandalous. That was the lightning rod that lead to water charge protests gaining traction.

Many revisionists like to paint it as only scroungers protesting about not wanting to pay, in reality it was a broad spectrum of people protesting for a variety of reasons - the biggest being how IW was a vessel for govt to funnel money to REDACTED and other colourful characters.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122318266#Comment_122318266

I don't think it was all done perfectly or anything but I do think the vast majority of the protests were based on a combination of a) not wanting to pay and b) genuinely believing it was all a conspiracy to privatise. "We have serious concerns about your tender process" was not the rallying cry of the protests.

There should still be some benefits to centralising the service as opposed to having every county council do it. But they are severely hamstrung by the inability to raise any debt financing.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122318260#Comment_122318260

it seems you don’t know how they work

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122318064#Comment_122318064

it’s a board at the top of Uisce Eireann, not a family

Gusser09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122318313#Comment_122318313

Id say im not in the minority.

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122318320#Comment_122318320

There are some people who are just so devoid of intelligence that no matter how you explain something that they will not accept it.

You'll find that the same people are anti Vax, don't believe in COVID, think 5g causes cancer and the earth is flat. In most cases they are social welfare dependant.

It's best to ignore them.

Economics101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122318142#Comment_122318142

Whether or not there was a "conspiracy" or a plan to privatise Irish Water, that has long gone out the window. No sane investor would touch it. What real evidence to you have that privatisation is on anyone's agenda?

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122318346#Comment_122318346

I know but it was funny, some family in the 2000's decided to turn from drug dealing to water, starting up Irish Water with the government. How would you even dream up this shi*e?

I.am.Putins.raging.bile.duct

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122318320#Comment_122318320

board member