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

Clarification time again, to coin a phrase, the signal to noise ratio is getting bad, and it's time to get back to IW, having almost left the country with the distractions.

To clarify where I am at, I have no issue with water charges, but I have massive issues with IW as presently structured and set up, and putting a new method of charging back into the Local Authorities is not an option, my preference would be for a properly structured, resourced and managed IW, which means some serious changes to what's been put in place at present,

The plan with IW, albeit very badly implemented at present, is that the cost of water (and waste water) will be paid via metering. That is NOT Water TAX, it is Water CHARGES, in that EVERY user pays according to their usage, or if they don't have a meter yet, they pay based on a usage that's been determined by reference to the usage patterns of other countries, who are years ahead of us in this area.

I would prefer to see that system in use, for several reasons, the main one being that it is a fair way to put charges into place, if you use a lot of water, you pay for it, if you don't, the bill is lower. Exactly the same system as that used for electricity, gas, motor fuel, heating oil, and many other consumables.

There needs to be a method to assist people that really are in financial problems, and can't pay, but that does not mean that every unemployed person and their family should be automatically excluded from charging, far from it, the intention is to make water charges fair and proportional and widely based. There are going to be some that genuinely can't pay, and they need to be helped. That is the hallmark of a genuine and caring society.

Meter charging is accepted in just about every other developed country worldwide, and has been proven to be effective, both in terms of cost recovery, and encouraging conservation.

Right now, as structured, IW is massively NOT fit for purpose. It has too many senior managers with dubious track records, and too many staff that they don't have work for, and it is completely wrong that they should be paid for by water users. I also have grave reservations about the bonus culture, the culture of the company, and their operational plan, there are a large number of issues that were not well managed by IW or the Government in the way that it was set up and structured.

IW has to remain state owned, and in order to provide an acceptable level of certainty, we need some form of constitutional protection of IW that will not permit the sale of IW to the private sector without the specific permission of the electorate through referendum, and the only reason for insisting on this extreme protection is because we can't trust the weasel words of the Political Elite, they have demonstrated on many occasions that they can't be trusted.

The other issues that have to be resolved are making sure that IW is completely transparent and open about the way that it spends the money it receives, and the regulator has to be given teeth to ensure that the regulation is not just a rubber stamp for increases.

If correctly structured, resourced and managed, IW has the potential to deal with the outstanding issues of leaks and missing infrastructure without massive increases in costings, but only if it is correctly set up and managed, right now, it is anything but, and that's one reason why IW wants nearly double the rate that the local authorities have been charging for potable water and waste water.

The other reason why we need IW is to get water out of the day to day influence of the political system, water has suffered badly for 25 years because of political interference, and the local authorities have been equally bad, because local politicians are more interested in visible vote winning schemes, and will prefer them to invisible infrastructure, which is why we're in the mess we are now. If IW is separate, and funded by its clients, rather than Government subventions, for the first time in 25 years, the water systems might actually start to improve.

In theory, direct taxation should be reduced by the equivalent of water charges, as the Government will no longer be funding water, but we all know that with the deficit that Ireland has at present, that's not going to happen for some time, which is a problem to some, but the reality of the deficit is that it has to be reduced in order to meet our obligations under EU and Euro treaty agreements.

The waters are about to be muddied by the Government, having made a shambles of the initial set up of IW, they are going to make it even worse, by messing with the funding, maybe worse, and that's going to do two things, the first is that it's going to reduce the IW income, and the second is that it's going to be yet another vote catching bribe, and neither are appropriate.

What should be happening is that the former county managers should be invited to "retire" again, ideally permanently, and enjoy their platinum plated pensions, and the 2500 people that IW didn't want should be let go, now. A management that is capable of running the organisation is needed, and the senior managers are not acceptable to people like me for all sorts of reasons, the main one being their less than acceptable previous track record.

IW need to publish a plan that will see meters fitted in the places that they are ignoring at present, so that there are fewer places that are not metered, and they need to be much more up front and visible with their plans for dealing with the leaks, and for dealing with the missing waste water treatment services in places like Clonmel, which has nothing at present.

The Government (actually, the entire political system) needs to recognise that the days of the Golden Circle are over, and no longer acceptable, and that the excesses of the last 25 years have to be corrected. That's going to be incredibly painful, because the changes need to happen to just about every state organisation. The HSE and IW are the most glaring examples, and the local authorities are no longer fit for purpose, the semi state quango structure has to be reformed, as do many other areas, and if that happens, Ireland will have a system that will be worthy of the nation, and (more importantly right now) acceptable to the electorate.

Our alternative is to do nothing, and wait for the next crisis, which on present showing won't be that long coming, and let the IMF make and implement all the hard decisions. That will be even more traumatic, and painful, but it might be the only way to actually achieve the very much needed result.