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.