Irish Water set to be a smaller, damper HSE

Irish Water looks set to be a damper, smaller HSE, but hopefully not quite the omnishambles. But it truly is the quango that seems to contain all that is bad about Irish governance.

From its inception, through the installation of water meters and to the issues around billing, and without doubt as we will see when it actually operates, it is an unedifying tale of a lack of joined-up thinking writ large.

We are incapable of planning, as is evident time and again. Despite its name, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has done scant reforming, leaving processes and mindsets immutable as the rocks.