Troubled water: Matter of time before Irish Water is  submerged in another major crisis

Run on a commercial basis but unable to collect charges, the firm which got €1.4bn in public money in 2021 is starting to show the strains of that public/private contradiction, reports Cianan Brennan

Niall Gleeson, Managing Director of Irish Water, has said: “Irish Water has legal responsibility but no direct control over water treatment plants around the country.”

Irish Water is in an unhappy place.

Born under a cloud of opprobrium back in 2013, amid accusations of squandered State funds during its establishment and the almighty row over water charges, it was intended to revitalise the country’s crumbling water infrastructure. The utility is neither fish nor fowl; it’s run on a commercial basis, as a subsidiary of Ervia, but, since it can’t collect water charges from households, it’s publicly funded.