History may look kindly on Hogan despite controversy over Irish Water
They all come at a political price, of course. Some of that cost will be paid in the currency of lost council seats by the government party’s on May 23. Whatever the political price, some also entail a cost to families which is largely resented. But like-it-or-lump-it, cumulatively it is all a seismic shift in local government and national taxation policy. Unlike other areas of policy, it amounts to a crisis that has conspicuously not been wasted.
Little of this is likely to have been attempted except for dire necessity. The presence until Dec 15 of, and pressure from, the troika concentrated minds. Be that as it may it leaves Environment Minster Phil Hogan with a substantive record of reform nearly unique in scope, at the cabinet table. Only Alan Shatter stands out as another minister with a perhaps greater record of substantive policy reform. The fact that both are widely unpopular, and in Hogan’s case, especially derided by the commenting classes makes singling him out as a champion of reform counter-intuitive.
The Government’s economic team of Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin may deserve plaudits for turning the economy around by largely implementing their predecessors’ programme, but if the latter wins praise as Minister for Public Expenditure, his record as a minister for reform is anaemic. The public service may be seriously slimmed down, but it remains substantively unreformed. Irish Water’s reverse takeover, almost intact and at such cost, of existing local authority water personnel is fresh evidence of that.
Betting on Hogan as a hero is risky given his form for ‘upsetting the apple tart’. From septic tanks to endless confusion over demands of property tax and this week’s renewed rumpus over the staffing levels of Irish Water, a lot of eggs have been broken to make omelettes, to use the minister’s own comparison. Unlike Shatter who has apparently forensic grasp of the detail of his brief, Phil Hogan doesn’t in his words “micro-manage“. There is reason to believe him.
The latest reputational hit on Irish Water is eerily reminiscent of the establishment of the HSE. Like the HSE, Irish Water was brought to the starting line in haste. Every supplier of services charges the maximum price the market can bear. In 2004 that enabled the trade unions secure a guarantee of existing jobs across the health boards being merged, as a condition of inaugurating the HSE.
In effect that deal was done in the spring of 2004. When Mary Harney arrived at the Department of Health in September she had a choice either to delay implementation of the HSE, perhaps indefinitely, or press on. She pressed on. The legacy was dead weight in both efficiency and costs for years after.
In setting up Irish Water on the same basis and accommodating existing county council water staff en masse, surplus costs and personnel are being carried by the new company and passed on to the public as a trade off for progress. Unlike the health services, Irish Water for all its complexity will ultimately be a far simpler operation. The challenge now will be to get it operational quickly, exploit natural wastage in personnel and package those who are surplus to requirements, off quickly. In any event, the paying public have a possible champion in the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER). Their ardour or the lack of it in challenging Irish Water’s cost base, when it sets the tariff we pay, will be critical. It won’t be long before we know what the bill is. More than 100,000 meters — more than 10% of the total is already installed. It is not just that time is ticking; your water meter will be too, very soon.
The recurring nature and recalcitrance of vested interest in the face of reform underlines rather than undermines Hogan’s case for a more favourable consideration than he has generally received. Taken in tandem with a property tax, an inspection regime for septic tanks, the merger of councils including Limerick City and County, North and South Tipperary, the abolition of town councils and the redistribution of council seats, a historically large legacy is being created.
On property tax: the State saw off a Supreme Court challenge to a property charge in the 1990s, and then saw Ruairi Quinn as Finance minister bow to popular pressure by abolishing it. That decision and the shift to higher stamp duty had an accelerating effect on the property bubble that later burst spectacularly. A lot of that responsibility post-dated Quinn’s exit from the department, but Hogan’s Local Property Tax is the most conspicuous contribution to the reconfiguration of a tax base, out of kilter for a generation.
Irish Water will indirectly have a powerful influence on planning. Councils which gave out planning permissions like snuff at a wake will be hemmed in by an effective requirement to have agreement from Irish Water in future. Part of the cost of water in future, including water in cities, will be the wells, water schemes and septic tanks required willy-nilly in the past to service the bungalow blitz of the boom. In controlling the supply of water, Irish Water will be highly influential on the future flow and location of planning permissions.
HOGAN’S requirement for registration of septic tanks, and the fact that the unregistered are being inspected first means you can no longer poop on your own doorstep and percolate your pollution into your neighbour’s water. And on water charges, we had them outside of Dublin until Brendan Howlin when minster for the environment abolished them in 1996. It was Hogan who brought them back.
If a future of property charges, water charges and septic tank inspections will do little to enhance Hogan’s popularity, they make it impossible to ignore his significance as a minster. His power within his own party, his disregard if not outright contempt for what passes for polite opinion and his forceful articulation in actions, belie the apparent in-articulation he is frequently lampooned for.
But he has a substantive record that stands in comparison, with any minister since Gerald Balfour established our system of local government in the 1890s. Unlike Balfour, Hogan lacks even a hint of languid gentility.
While it is clearly within his capacity to sink himself without trace, if he survives, or better leaves in time for bigger things, he may leave a legacy of far greater significance than many of his cabinet colleagues who initially seemed to promise more and have since, delivered conspicuously less. I doubt he will ever be widely popular, but he might yet acquire a grudging regard.
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