The future is being re-mortgaged by the failure of Irish Water plans

HALF of us signed up for water charges and have been made mugs of. Instead of a pay-as-you-use system, delivering revenues sufficient to make a quantum difference to a shambolic but essential infrastructure, a flat charge is coming.

It won’t make the blindest bit of difference how much you use: You still pay the same. The revenue will not be sufficient to make the investments we were told were essential.

It’s a case of kicking the can down the road — and it’s cowardice. Yes today’s much-leaked climbdown was inevitable, but it was avoidable and it is a disgrace. It is political survival now, delivered at the cost of good government over the long term. Tellingly it is the end of the road for the once-bright promise of reform ushered in by the election of this government.