**ALL THINGS IRISH WATER/WATER RELATED** Part 2 - MOD WARNING IN OP

mikom wrote: »

Thread has gone to shite.

Pity.

OK, let's try and get it back on track.

I typed this up earlier, when lots of people were having problems understanding what the reasons for the protests are.

First, to make it clear, I'm not a member of any political party, and I don't have any leanings to being involved with one or any, I'm too old and too disillusioned with the political landscape to be any real use to a political organisation at this stage, but I still have what I think is a working brain, and I'm prepared to try to use it.

Irish Water as a concept was desperately needed for a number of reasons.

To coin a phrase from Strictly, "In no particular order", the main order being as I think of them.

There are at present 38 local authorities, some covering large numbers of people, in relatively small geographic areas, some covering next to no people, but a large geographic area, and their structure is massively top heavy with expensive management, they are severely unionised, and overstaffed, and very expensive for the work they do, but changing that system is beyond the skills and will of any of the political parties, because changing that system would lead to changes having to be made to politics as well, and that's not acceptable to the Golden Circle.

The Government is desperate to get some services (like water) "Off the books" in order to keep the Troika happy, and make the deficit at least look smaller, even if that's done at the expense of actually costing more long term, which it will with the way things have been set up at present

Water (which in this context also includes waste water treatment) has been massively (criminally) underfunded and under resourced for at least 25 years, so there are issues like Clonmel, which is still discharging untreated raw sewage into the rivers, and into the sea, and there are other places, Cobh and Killybegs were also mentioned on the radio today that still have the same problems, and if we don't as a nation address them, we will be liable for massive fines under EU directives that have been in place for (in some cases) over 15 years..

Water catchment areas, and storage areas, transcend LA boundaries, the most significant example being the Shannon, which covers more than one province, let along local authority areas. The management of the resource, before we even consider treatment and storage, has to be looked at in that wider context, not just on a local need, local use basis, to ensure that all potential users get a fair allocation and share of the resource. As time goes on, this will be more important, we don't as such have a water shortage in Ireland, but we can and do have significant problems with the extraction of water in the right places, distribution to where it's needed, and storage of both untreated and treated water to ensure continuity of supply.

Waste water treatment also can affect a much wider area than just a local authority area, and historically, there's been very little real management over LA boundaries, and things like objections to a scheme from outside of a county boundary were often given lower recognition than objections from within the county, which is not helpful.

There is a huge backlog of deferred maintenance of old water mains and old sewers that is getting larger every year, and the longer that is left, the more expensive the work will become, partly through deterioration, and partly through cost inflation.

So, Irish Water as a concept should have happened many years ago, but the lack of political will, and the significant pressure of the unions to resist ANY change has combined to end up with a situation where the changes that are happening now are more as a result of the unsubtle pressure of the Troika than as a result of political willing for change to happen, and the Troika have pushed the issue on the underlying basis that every other OECD country has long established and well organised systems in place to manage the harvesting, treatment and delivery of potable water, and systems to then deal with the waste water as well, and in some cases, these systems and the organisations that manage them transcend national boundaries, as the water systems and rivers cross boundaries.

The supply of potable water and the treatment of waste water is expensive. The bill in Ireland is above €1bn per annum at present, but that figure is badly distorted by the massive leak problem (in excess of 40% of treated water is lost), and due to the manner in which water was being managed, the LA system of management is costing more than can be reasonably justified, and IW should have been able to make significant savings by addressing the leaks issue, and only employing the number of people that are needed to manage the system.

That's some of the background.

Now, what's gone wrong with what should have been a simple plan.

The first issue is that the wrong management at the highest levels have been appointed, we are aware of at least 3 former county managers, who left their previous employment under at best a cloud, having been responsible for massive cost over run issues, or overspending, or other issues that in the private sector would have disbarred them from employment in any other area or sector. That is not the case in Semi States, and we've seen the result.

The unions managed to do under the table deals that meant over 4500 people being moved over from the LA's to IW, and IW had put on record that they were only going to need 1700, so 2500 people are being employed by IW but there's no real work for them to do.

The management structure of IW has been liberally stuffed with former semi state employees, with very few private sector people being employed, which is highly suspicious.

IW has put in place a number of things that are seen as inappropriate at this stage of the development of the company. A private gym that's realistically only available to a select few at head office, a controversial bonus scheme that "rewards" under achievers, excessively generous expenses and allowance schemes, and a very poor PR and customer service system have all combined to make a large number of people very unhappy with the ethos, culture and operational attitude of IW.

IW are proposing to charge at least double the rates that was being charged by most LA's for non domestic water. No justification or explanation for this massive differential has been offered, and despite all manner of requests, IW have been less than forthcoming with any real information about what they are doing, their plans to deal with the infrastructure backlog, and similar issues.

There is a very real fear that unless specific and definite obstructions are put in at a constitutional level, at some stage in the not too distant future, IW will be sold to the private sector, which is seen as being a very negative option, partly because IW will be a monopoly with no real potential for competition, and Water is being seen by many investors as the new petroleum in investment terms, and many people are reluctant to see a fundamental and essential service and product under the control of the private sector, and being managed by a for profit organisation.

Having seen how the private sector abused and damaged the national telecom supplier, I think those suspicions are well founded, and Government has done nothing to allay those very real fears.

So, that's the background.

Now, to the future. Like it or not, water is going to change, the intention, which is reasonable, is that each user will pay for their water based on their usage. There will be some government support, but the level of that support is not clear yet, and has become even more complicated as a result of the recent significant protests.

Water was being funded out of other taxation streams, and that is going to be changed. That has the benefit of releasing funds from those taxation sources to be used in other areas of the economy, and towards repaying the significant debts that are outstanding, some from the bank bail out, most from the overspending of previous administrations.

In the short term, we won't see our overall taxation and spend on government and related services fall, because like it or not, we are obliged to reduce our deficit, and that means that money is still being taken out of the economy to pay those bills.

There need to be systems in place to protect the vulnerable, and those who genuinely cannot pay the full charge for their water. The number eligible for that level of support needs to be closely controlled, and there will be many who are saying they won't pay who can afford to pay, and no latitude is appropriate there, if for no other reason than that even though we don't like it, the government policy is that water has to change, and this is their way of making that change.

In broad terms, I don't want to pay for water, but I recognise that I will have to, because the service has to be paid for. Metering is the fairest way to do that, and to most economic way to do it is for the system to be run by one (state owned) company for the whole country. At present, I would have major issues with paying IW for that water, while I am prepared to pay for water, I am not prepared to pay exorbitant payroll costs for Golden Circle retirees, or for people who are employed for the wrong reasons, or for inappropriate bonuses.

What is driving a lot of the protests, and will hopefully drive many more to protest, is the obscene and offensive manner in which Golden Circle members have been parachuted in to the top of IW to take massive payments out of the system, having in theory retired from another semi state position.

For IW to work, and be acceptable to the people of Ireland, a number of things have to be fundamentally changed.

The management has to be seen to be acceptable, and that does not mean semi state retirees who have failed in their previous roles.

The numbers employed have to be appropriate.

The manner in which the company operates has to be appropriate.

The management have to be accountable for their actions, and the money and operation of the company has to be open to scrutiny by the people of the country, and if things are done that are inappropriate, there has to be a means of bringing the people responsible to account, and if appropriate, that includes firing them, not moving them sideways to another secure state position.

The Energy regulator has to be seen to have real control of the prices being charged, and not be seen as just a figurehead to appease external viewers and rubber stamp price increases, our previous experiences with the Financial regulator serves to make people very nervous of the real power and authority of the watchdogs, we need them to be able to bark, loudly and with menace where needed.

What's also becoming increasingly clear is that there are increasing numbers of people who are very unhappy with the way that our politicians operate. We've seen corruption, cronyism, fraud, and all manner of other issues that have combined to make people very unhappy about the way that politics are operating, and we've realised that we actually have very little real control over what they do, and how they do it, and throwing them out and putting another party in to power has now been seen for the ineffective control that it really is.

Many of the semi state services management are being paid very high sums of money, and that is hard to justify, it's happened because too many of us, (and yes, I include myself in this list) have not been engaged with politics, and the result has been that those same politicians have exploited that lack of engagement to feather their own nests, and the nests of their close supporters, and they have continued to do it, even though times have fundamentally changed, and such largesse is no longer affordable or acceptable.

I've already posted what I think should happen to local authorities, they need to be massively reformed, with many of them merged into provincial authorities, and some services like libraries merged into one national service, but that will be a very hard mountain to climb, because the opposition to that will be massive.

Our choices are remarkably few.

If we don't accept the changes that are needed, and that includes IW Mk 2, then there is a very real likelihood that there will be another economic melt down, and the IMF will be back again, and next time, they will be more inclined to take the line of forcing the changes that are needed, and that will mean (among other things) the end of every state employees contract, with no guarantee of re employment, and no guarantee that the new terms and conditions of employment will be anything like the previous terms.

That will be even more traumatic that the last years have been. If it does happen, it will give us as a nation the real opportunity to take control of our futures in a much more positive manner, and bring about the real changes that are needed to make Ireland a great country to live and work in once more. It will also hopefully mean that the people will have more of their money in their pockets again, and the state services will no longer be the uncontrollable and unmanageable monster that it has become over the last 25 years.