Admit you’re wrong and start again

Government and Irish Water

If Goldman Sachs, which announced third quarter profits up by 50% to €1.65bn last Thursday, was the decisive shareholder at Irish Water then the meeting to review the project and how the battle for the hearts and minds of its captive customers was going would be short and brutal. Heads would roll and, at a quickly convened news conference, the mea culpas would flow like an autumn river in flood. The new board would stand behind the new chief executive — looking at the cameras, not their shoes — as he or she announced that Irish Water was deeply sorry for the lack of clarity, its corporate haughtiness, and the ludicrous costs of establishing the quango and retaining superfluous staff.

That brave person would announce a rededication to Irish Water’s raison d’être — the provision of a reliable, cost-effective water service financed by justifiable water charges. It would place a new emphasis on the pressing need to do this quickly because current water systems are barely fit for purpose. The conference would close with a take-home message: an absolute assurance that the semi-state monopoly would not pay any performance related awards or bonuses of any kind to any employee.