Taxpayer losing out repeatedly as State tries to invest in water
Ireland has the highest availability of water in Europe. Yet various governments have not bothered to take measures to preserve this natural resource. Dublin, despite its growth in population, has had no new reservoirs since the 1960s.
Up to this year, local city and county councils were in charge of upgrading the country’s water and sewerage systems with the EPA in a supervisory role. But much of the upgrading which was advised by the EPA was never carried out. The EPA is a dog with no teeth and didn’t force the local authorities into action.
Millions of euros in development levies,which should have funded such projects, were not used by the councils to upgrade sewerage systems or were never handed over to the local authorities by the developer. Why weren’t they collected? Recession I am told. But should Nama not be handing over from its profits, overdue development fees owed to the local authorities? Or is the taxpayer caught out here for the third if not the fourth time?
Then on January 1, Irish Water entered the stage promising drinkable water to the highest standard and better water conservation. They started out doing their business using a big stick, now they are using sweeteners and a small cane to get people to sign up. This has infuriated Irish people. For the last month Irish Water has made more changes to the water charges model than a model at a Paris fashion show.
It is obvious that when it comes to the upgrade of sewage treatment plants the taxpayer will have to fork out the money, no way will Irish Water be burdened with the task of funding any upgrade without a handout from central government. Again the tax payer will be caught.
Yet, most people believe that the water distribution network will be either rented out or if not sold off to the highest bidder sometime in the future. The most galling thing for the Irish people over the last number of months is listening to those in authority lecturing the public on the need for conservation, those very people allowed housing estates and warehouse to be built on flood plains during the Tiger Years.
They never insisted on sewage treatment plants being adequate for the new populations before planning permissions were given, they were happy to turn a blind eye to dubious waste water and sewage connect ups as long as the levies came rolling in. So now the people who were not responsible must pay.
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