Drip, drip feed of toxic water news State utility’s survival

IT is hard to imagine any Irish commercial state entity more out of touch with its customers than Irish Water.

Not only has its public relations been a disaster almost from its inception, but it still manages to find new and ingenious methods to infuriate even those who are neutral or even sympathetic to the need for water charges.

Almost exactly a year ago, it was revealed that the company had breached data protection laws when it inadvertently sent the bank details of a number of customers to other customers without their consent. The details, sent as an acknowledgement to a direct debit mandate, were addressed to either the wrong names or the wrong address.

Also in March of last year, almost 100,000 homes fitted with meters received flat-rate bills from Irish Water, resulting in higher charges for thousands of families.

At the same time, major leaks meant some customers received bills of almost €20,000 for the first three months of 2015.

In February of this year, Irish Water issued boil water notices to the wrong area of Co Galway.

It should be pointed out that none of the above represent deliberate acts or policy on behalf of Irish Water; they were genuine mistakes or oversights of a type that probably happen in other companies and industries.

However, Irish Water is far more culpable when it comes to decisions and activities that are deliberate. A little over a week ago, it was revealed that the company spent more than €300,000 on external public relations since January 2014. The utility paid €317,000 to four Dublin-based public relations firms to deal with bad press. Irish Water sought to justify this expenditure, which is on top of what it spends on its internal PR team, on the basis that it receives “unprecedented” attention from the Irish media.

An even more politicised move came more recently when Ervia, the parent company of Irish water, paid substantial sums to two senior lawyers for legal advice on the prospect of scrapping water charges. Under EU law, there is no option to return to supplying the service for free, according to legal advice received by the company from two senior counsel.

“In light of recent queries regarding water charges, independent legal advice was sought by Ervia, which confirms that, under European law, Ireland is now obliged to charge for water services,” a spokeswoman said.

That was bound to raise the hackles of politicians who have vowed to scrap the charges and Irish Water along with them.

There can be no escaping the fact that Irish Water is using funds from the public to pay for legal advice in order to justify its own existence.

There is a cogent argument in favour of retaining water charges on the basis that the user should pay, but the flipside is that general tax liability should be reduced by a corresponding amount.

It may be too late, though, for the utility. It has become more toxic than polluted water and it is doubtful if it can survive.