Implications of Irish Water fiasco: A symptom of political ineptitude

Just as Gerry Adams seems to have, finally, met his nemesis in Maíria Cahill, the Government has met theirs in Irish Water. 

A long overdue project Irish Water was to have been the standard bearer for reform. It was to have been an icon for a new way of doing public business in a cleaned-up Ireland. Tragically, but, in hindsight predictably, it has turned into a nightmare of confusion, hubris, the same old snouts-in-the-trough indulgence, underlined by an almost palpable disdain for the citizens the quango was set up to serve.

It has shown too that a Government elected to bring change remains in thrall to old ways and unable — or unwilling — to assert the authority entrusted to it by the electorate. How can a Government not be in control of a semi-state organisation? It may not have a day-to-day role but it must at least set — and enforce — parameters that reflect social equity.

Just yesterday morning yet another government representative — Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Alex White — added his voice to the feeble bleating about cabinet’s inability to control Irish Water. He said it was “jarring” underperforming Irish Water staff might expect a 9% bonus. In some “exceptional” cases that bonus will reach 19%. However, it is even more jarring this Government, the one with the reform mandate and unassailable majority, feels unable to intervene. How pathetic. How disappointing. How destructive to the idea of participatory democracy and how jarring the next election may prove.

Unfortunately the sorry affair has become a touchstone for the disillusionment so deeply felt by the hundreds of thousands of voters who hoped this Government would implement the root-and-branch reform it promised. Irish Water has sadly become a symbol for the establishment’s inability to remake itself. If those were the only consequences of the sorry affair then, like all 10-day wonders, it would, in time, be forgotten. Unfortunately, and quite dangerously, this is no longer entirely about Irish Water and the bonuses unwisely paid to a few hundred staff.

It is about the credibility and effectiveness of our political establishment and its ability to manage and reorder the country’s affairs. It is about the established parties’ ability to deliver real, society-enriching change, especially when given such a very resounding mandate to do so.

The list of undelivered promises — free GP care, changes in school patronage, reliable nationwide broadband, changes in school exams, reform of how the professions do their business, legal services reform, the climate change bill, holding bankers to account, reducing energy dependence, and the list could go on — almost overshadows undeniable economic achievements but for good reason. By showing that a project like Irish Water seems almost beyond it , Government has sown the seeds for the kind of chaos seen in local, European and recent bye-elections. If this transpires at the next Dáil election, and the prospect looks stronger every day, this Government will be to blame but we will all pay a very heavy price. The real cost of the Irish Water debacle may yet threaten our political and economic stability.