Water asset must leave no hole unplugged

Irish Water is going to be the biggest and could be the most important State-owned asset created by an Irish government.

Yesterday, Phil Hogan, the environment minister, closed off the period for the receipt of submissions in the consultation process on a public water utility.

This is going to be a big beast. It will cost €1.2bn annually to run, employ 4,000 people, operate 15,500 miles of mains water pipes, supply 1.5m customers with 350m gallons of clean water a day, treat sewage and effluent from 1m establishments (equivalent to a population of almost 6m), and install 1.35m water meters.