Water charges milestone: Majority pays up

THE Irish Water debacle reflects so very badly on our political administration, and so many citizens’ unrealistic expectations, that it is almost unpatriotic to unnecessarily raise the subject. It is the family scandal that no one wants to talk about anymore unless they really have to.

Nevertheless, the Government will take more than a crumb of comfort from the fact that the number of homeowners who have paid water charges has passed the 50% mark. This milestone has been passed as Irish Water nears the end of its second billing cycle.

This figure will not, of course, bring the protests around the issue to an end but it does show that some sort of sanity usually prevails in these matters and the majority of people recognise that, as the Cohen brothers told us in True Grit, “there’s nothing free in this life except the grace of God”.

The old saying has it that we get the government we deserve but in this festival of spectacular incompetence and amateurism, it is fair to say the Government has got an electorate it hardly deserves.