Irish Water debacle: Veto vote is the price for water tax

Any sober assessment of the water debacle, any assessment of our response to the sharpening imperative to change how we regard this essential but finite gift, any assessment of whose needs prevailed during the establishment of the feather-bedded monopoly, or any assessment of the economics of water provision in 2014 must cause any rational person to wonder if we are capable of honest self-appraisal.

What should have been a benchmark project, a proud standard-bearer for a new and up-to-speed, post-Celtic Tiger Ireland has instead become a Darby O’Gill farce. One that even if it is not populated by O’Gill’s Little People is tragically characterised by small, short-term thinking on all sides.

It is hard to know which side of the debate provokes the greater despair. The Government parties railroaded through a project with the tender touch of its chief architect — Phil Hogan, who, in a very Irish way, now enjoys what can only be described as a pat-on-the-back trophy job in Brussels as if he had delivered an efficient entity we can all admire. That commissioner Hogan’s model is being completely remade asks a lot of pretty obvious questions that will never be answered, especially by those who, like Darby O’Gill’s Little People, nodded approvingly as Mr Hogan insisted that his way was the best — and only — way to equitably fund secure water provision.

This startling ineptitude, this incomprehensible communications disaster so insensitive that it almost defies belief, has forced the Government to make humiliating and credibility-squandering concessions. The Bertie Ahern-like refusal to confront the indulgences that all but destroyed this country epitomised by keeping hundreds if not thousands of people in jobs that no longer have a function culminated over recent days with attacks on Government ministers, bomb and bullet threats and the mindless destruction of vans paid for by taxpayers. The bonus culture established at Irish Water before a single leak was fixed added to the frenzy.

These protests cannot be described as mob rule but there is an unacceptable level of threat in play. That the threat runs parallel to the bizarre belief that water is a right rather than a commodity and that it is free adds to the fantasy. This sense of entitlement is as unpalatable as the sense of entitlement — greed — shown by Irish Water. There is a ray of hope though. Something around 850,000 people have registered with Irish Water and even if 10% of those have no liability then that figure is a multiple of all protesters put together despite what our megaphone agitators suggest.

The affair has further damaged our political system and the least those who have silently supported water charges deserve is an opportunity to vote for a constitutional amendment to make it illegal to privatise the company. That, as senior politicians have bleated, may open a can of worms but so be it. It cannot be any worse than today’s mess and if our political system cannot cope with that simple enough proposition then we have far bigger problems than Irish Water. The price for supporting water charges must be an opportunity to copper-fasten the quango in State ownership.