Irish Water controversy

Having worked as an environmental consultant for nearly 40 years and in as many countries, and from time to time involved with the development and implementation of community drinking water systems, I am appalled at the lack of accountability as regards what Irish Water received by way of consultancy fees.

We are still in the dark as to what were the consultancy deliverables. For the €50m Irish Water has forked out on consultancy fees, that sum would go a long way had it been spent on reducing the massive leakages in our national drinking water transmission systems — ours are very high for a so-called developed country.

We have outstanding water engineering specialists in this country who work in the Department of Environment, EPA and local authorities. Why not use their existing expertise rather than hiring in outside consultants to produce reports long on waffle but far short on actual implementation? The current senior management arrangements within Irish Water reek of nepotism and cronyism, and are also a dreadful indictment of our Environment Minister Phil Hogan.