Irish Examiner View: Who carries the can for life’s main need?

While our approach to water management has its imperfections, they are as nothing compared to the scandals faced by our neighbours in the UK.

There is widespread acceptance that provision of water is an essential service that needs to stay in public ownership. File Picture.

A sometimes under-appreciated benefit of having a big neighbour is that its actions can be used as the perfect reverse barometer. Certainly, we have gained as a nation in the past few years by observing what the British government is up to, and then doing exactly the opposite.

But where there are problems in common, it can be instructive to learn from the mistakes of others. And this is nowhere better illustrated than in the varying attitudes towards the management of water, that essential component of life, between our countries.