Hands off our water, please

Global warming or no global warming, there is no scarcity of water in this country.

The sole purpose of introducing water charges and water meters has nothing to do with the availability of water but, it would seem, is purely a revenue collection exercise. We already know with the setting up of Irish Water that 400 jobs alone are proposed for a call centre to deal with queries on water metering, etc. This cost, together with the cost of the installation of meters, tiers of management and staff in a new bureaucratic organisation will ensure the capital cost will far exceed what current estimates are.

If all this comes to pass, we are led to believe usage allowances will be allocated per person. Presumably this would be based on the current average quantity that a person uses. But there is a big capital outlay and a big bureaucratic system that has to be fed, so these allowances will be cut fairly tight. When the people start to wash and shower less frequently, share bathwater, reduce toilet flushing, etc then there will be a drop in consumption. Revenue will now be down so charges will increase (a bit like health insurance) but there will be no going back.

Irish Water will be sold off to some foreign investor who will then control our water. Watch what happens when some foreign investor decides how much we should pay. Comparisons will be made with what water costs in other countries that are nowhere comparable to us. This is Ireland and this is our water. This should not be allowed happen.

On her radio programme some time back Marian Finucane stated “everybody accepts we have to pay for our water”. Maybe she doesn’t realise that we are already paying for our water. The people of this country own the water and have paid for the network that delivers it to our homes. So asking us to pay for this a second time is a bit Irish. Mr Hogan & Co, ye can ‘pull on the green jersey’ and ‘take one for the team’, but hands off our water.

Ciarán Dunne

Ballintemple

Cork