Get rid of Irish Water and cut our losses

It used to be so simple. If the local water main leaked, you phoned the local water authority, and they came out and fixed i

Not any more. Phil Hogan said: “there are 32 water authorities which is far too many for this country.”

True, so we expected him to amalgamate some of them bringing the number down to say twenty or even eighteen. Hah! No way, instead he created a monster called Irish Water.

The result? Now if you ring your local authority to report e leak they must refer you to Irish Water. You then find yourself talking to someone in a call centre. They take details and log these on to the computer of the relevant water authority.

So what happened next? Nothing. I rang Irish Water again but they could tell me nothing. Finally I contacted a local councillor who contacted a county engineer and a team was out in jig time to repair the leak.

The thing is that there are still the same number of water authorities as before and you end up being serviced by the same water authority as before. The difference is that you cannot contact them directly! In other words Irish Water is not just an extra layer but an impediment! Don’t get me wrong, this has nothing to do with water charges, they can be dealt with quite well through water authorities. Cut our losses, get rid of Irish Water.

Brendan Casserly

Abbeybridge

Waterfall

Co Cork