Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE MANAGING DIRECTOR of Irish Water has said that the Government was aware of the outcome of the procurement process for consultancy services in March 2013.
John Tierney has told the Oireachtas environment committee that just under €86 million will be spent on consultants, contractors and legal advice as part of an €180 million budget in setting up Irish Water.
These figures were released for the first time today but Irish Water has said that the Government knew of the completion of the procurement process 10 months ago.
The Government were also informed two years ago that outside consultants would be required in the establishment of the new utility company.
John Barry, director of the Irish Water programme at Bord Gáis, reiterated that the Department of the Environment was made aware in January 2012 that outside consultants would be needed. He later said that budget costings were presented to the Department of the Environment in September 2012.
Irish Water operates as part of a separate entity under Bord Gáis and company representatives were asked today at what point it became clear that Bord Gáis would not have the capability to undertake the consultancy itself.
Barry said that this was clear from the beginning of the process.
“We made this clear from the outside that we didn’t have services on the scale to get this delivered,” he said in response to questions from Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen,
John Barry explained that Bord Gáis did have some competencies as a utility company but stressed that differences between water and gas provision meant that their skills we not adequate to provide all the serviced needed to set up Irish Water.
John Barry at today’s Committee on Environment, Transport, Culture and the Gaeltacht. Pic: Screengrab / Oireachtas
The scale of the project also proved a problem in using Bord Gáis explained Tierney, who detailed that the new semi-state would have the largest customer base in the country at 1.8 million people as well as 4,300 staff.
Cowen used the opportunity to complain that the consultancy budget has only been made available today despite what he said were repeated questions from himself and other TDs over the past year:
This document is very welcome but the circumstances surrounding its publication are unfortunate, much of what is contained in this document would have been what was expected when we put questions to minister.
Tierney responded that this was a matter for Government and that it was not within the remit of Irish Water to supply answers to parliamentary questions.
Cowen followed up by showing Tierney a highly redacted document presented to Fianna Fáil on the establishment of Irish Water.
He asked Tierney was he aware that many questions had already been asked about the cost of consultancy and whether there was a “breakdown of communications” between Irish Water and the Government.
“I’m afraid that the only reason we’re here today is because you answered a question of a radio journalist that I and others had already asked in our national parliament,” he said.
Earlier today, the Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin confirmed that the new State utility will be brought “fully” into Freedom of Information.
Barry repeated this pledge and said that commercial sensitiveness would not be used as to bypass this, saying that this would be done “in so far as is practical”.
The only area he explained that they would be perhaps be concerns about commercial sensitivities would be when Irish Water is tendering for services.
“We have no problem of sharing information with the market so long at is doesn’t discourage competitors in the market as regards bidders,” he said.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
They use our money to set up a system to get more money out if us
is it just me or is anyone else feeling exploited
Mind your knuckles on the floor now
Will we ever clean up our act ? It’s like a Russian Doll, expose one and another pops up ! Same with so called “Charities” and they all have one thing in common, our famous Golden Circle.
It’s tentacles reach the Judiciary through all Government and Local Authorities and at the end of the day they tighten ranks to protect themselves from the consequences of their actions. Great little Country !
Stalin had ideas on this type of thing.
They were called “purges”.
As a country, we need to purge ourselves of the lice that hold the levers of power in this place i.e. the high-ranking civil servants that call the shots from behind the scenes.
Thankfully we live in a ‘democracy (of sorts), so in theory that should be do-able at the ballot box.
So, next time you’re in there, use your vote to its best effect: number ALL the candidates in your order of preference.
Just because FF/LAB/FG are a despicable rabble doesn’t mean you should ignore them.
To do so is to allow them in the back door.
Hold your nose/bless yourself as you write 9,10,11 or whatever beside their accursed names and maybe then the sackings that are needed will be delivered to those most richly deserving of them.
Crazy stuff , And the same faces and names that appear in different controversies, ‘consultants fees quangos etc .
How the hell do these people get appointed time and again and who’s behind their appointment. Will somebody please call halt!
We should be out on the streets screaming for heads to roll ……….. if it wasn’t for the fluoride !!
A “new” way of doing politics appearantly Jimmy
The Irish Water Fiasco will bring down this Government ,
God I hope so
Hopefully it will bring this shower down and show them up for what they are.
and who will take over?
Who specifically in the Government knew?
Was it Phil Hogan?
Not a whisper out of the buffoon.
‘John Barry, director of the Irish Water programme at Bord Gáis, reiterated that the Department of the Environment was made aware in January 2012 that outside consultants would be needed. He later said that budget costings were presented to the Department of the Environment in September 2012.’
If this is true (and it must surely be easy to verify the information here), then Hogan knew all along what was happening
Knew yes understood it is a different question……
Okay guys’ now let’s stick the point. This rabble from Cowen is a ruse (it is how political entities help each other out). The real contention here is, has the money been well spent?
D, SILENCE, SILENCE FOR GODS SAKE. YES, IT WAS HIM BUT PLEASE DON’T TELL THE PEOPLE THIS. WE WANT TO KEEP IT TO OURSELVES. WE NEVER TELL THE PEOPLE THE TRUTH.
And what excuse will those gombeens come up with regarding this news.
None as their is no excuse.
Does Priory Hall Tierney or Junior Minister stories tally?
This country is a fooking SHAMBLES!!
Assassinations are the only way forward now!!
In other news, adults have learned that Santa is not real
Gerbeen. Why do u call Tierney Priory Hall. Whats the connection ????
Santa is more real compared to competency or creditability of any politicians in this country its a joke
These lads are pros
You retire from your previous job and leave it in the shit with €80 million debt
You get a €270,000 lump sum and a €68,000 pension
And then you’re hired by Irish Water
Pros , I salute ye’re brilliance !!
Yep that’s how the system works. When someone f****-up in the civil service, state agency, etc., then they get shifted sideways. This is officially known as “redeployment” and they have first refusal before jo(e) public gets a look in. And they almost always use outside consultants and contractors to get work like this done. The concept of doing it themselves by hiring and deleloping competent staff simply doesn’t exist in their minds as doing so would ultimately show them up.
I almost spat my caviar out reading this story, I am so outraged i could peal a grape.
Nothing surprises me at all.
Smoke & mirrors.
Just the same as the CRC scandal……..the Gov knew about that early last year also!
Now you know the real truth about why they wanted the Troika out of the picture!
You heard the one about the guy who had an ‘erection’ for seven weeks………but now it transpires that the entire staff and owners at IBM have had a boner since January 2013!
Investors at IBM say they are going to make good use of it by……………giving it up the ass to Irish Water customers!
They are already scamming and filling their pockets before the whole thing is even set up!
And the government does, as usual, nothing….What a Banana Republic this country has become…
Will it ever stop. Its beyond ridiculous at this stage.
Not being rude but this is what it costs to set up a utility company.
This is why I have never supported the setting up Irish Water, it is total waste of money… Can anyone show a massive water wastage that is going to billions over the next few years?
Think about it this way, to send a bill costs a company €2.50. 1.8 million subscribers getting a bill every two months will cost 54 million a year for jsut printing and sending invoices… €30 per customer… Installation of meters how much… The system they are installing now will need a major upgrade in ten years…
This was supposed to save money in a recession… Think about it… They are talking about this not being fully functional until 2025….
This whole move was an IMF privatization play which has happened all over the world. I urge you to look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1a3tjqQiBI.
No where has this worked in favour of the consumer. So lets look at facts:
Does Ireland over use water? Actually we don’t seem that bad.
http://www.waterfootprint.org/WFP_files/Img/GlobalWaterFootprintMap.jpg
So look at Renewable internal freshwater resources per capita:
Ireland has 5 times UK, 4 times France, 8 times Germany, 10 times Denmark….
Where is the crisis? This is a shakedown, it is to privatize Irish Water and we would have to pretty dumb not see it coming… Privatization of water has spelled disaster in everywhere it has been…
It might cost that much if you were putting down infrastructure to start your own local water company but all that already exists, they have blown 50 million on ‘advice’ and at most a few lines of code for a billing system
Just4,
The Billing system and CRM where meant to be lifted off Bord Gais from what I can gather… Honestly they would have probably better off telling us there ideas and we could have given better answers in the pub.
The whole premise is nuts… The country with the most fresh liquid water and one of the lowest consumption in Europe should have to ration it… This is selling sand to Arabs and getting away with it…
Okay, so it costs €3 or whatever for a bill per customer.
What ever happened to the digital age and paperless billing like what Airtricity do?
It will still cost them 3e a pop because they’ll hire in some company to send the emails, outsource the accounting and put everything through a 3rd party CRM provider.
E-billing doesn’t save that much money.
Mass printing to PDF or Email/Portal with postage saves the Planet more than money
The money used to set up Irish Water came from the National Pension Reserve Fund. Who has the keys of the safe lads. Can’t say we didn’t know
I would have said LPT
John Tierney is the head of Ivor Callely.
You’re the head off the bear from the Fox’s mints ad !
That was my father, it was good gig.
Cool gig to get !
He went to Coca-Cola after that.
Foxs Mints considered him a Bye-Polar Bear so !
Anyone who pays irish water are in my mind complicit in this scam this is nothing short of daylight robbery.
The gombeeno family omerta is the word
I’ve been a little busy today and have had difficulty following this story. From what I can gather from the get-go “they” knew a shed load of money was going to be spent on establishing Irish Water and figured it would be a good idea to hide this fact from us. To do this the government decided that Irish Water would not be subject to any Freedom of Information requests, this means that many of those same politicians who are claiming to be shocked at the expenditure now, agreed to hide it from us when they could. John Barry made it clear they knew the sums of money involved as far back as 2012. Hypocritical, two faced shites? Never.
Irish Water now say it will cost €180 million to establish the company, which translated from Irish into English will likely mean at least twice that amount, as we all know. But surely it couldn’t take much more than that to plug the numerous water leaks around the country and make the entire water delivery system more efficient, at the very least it’d make a good start at it and have something tangible to show for it.
And now that the cat’s out of the bag, so to speak, “Howling Howlin” decides that Irish Water will be subject to Freedom of Information Requests after all.
Seriously, I can honestly picture some despot dictator in a backward country somewhere (worse than this) watching this on Despot TV and asking his minions (loudly) Can you believe this shit? I’d NEVER get away with that!!!
Jed
A shed load of money hasnt been spent establishing Irish Water.
A shed load of money has been given to “Consultants” or translated into Irish as “Cronies”
RPS. The same crew who this and previous governments “Consulted” for the poolbeg incinerator.
Accenture, who strangely seem to win nearly every public sector contract for IT.
Contracts awarded without tenders?
Phil Hogan knew about this in 2012 and we are expected to believe that this fiasco is in the best interests of the Irish people?
It beggars belief. Enough is enough.
No argument from me.
Oh? That’s alright so?
Just saw the Dail Committee Chairman, McCarthy, who repeatedly called the entity Uisce Eireann. This is a bilingual country ( at enormous expense) , but maybe he thought it might be more patriotic to Gaelicise this scam. Based on his interview with Dobbo , it seems to me that he has already bought into this extortion racket, and I wouldn’t depend on him for any deep probing, and searching questions, on it’s behavioural record to date, or hereafter.
Yeah’ just saw him on the News………he looks rather calm and sedate……now that someone told him to keep his mouth shut. He said now, he is satisfied that the money has been well spent.
Honest to God lads……..we were getting upset over nothing!
Deflection……………………in other news farmers getting windfall of 12.5billion…………MEP confident Ireland will get 80million for coastal repairs……..etc. etc. etc……………
……….what about Irish Water?
For heaven’s sake, do people think that water falls from the sky? Oops let me try again.
Does anyone think that we have an abundance of rain in Ireland? Oops let me try again.
Does anyone seriously think that that establishing a new water supply in Ireland where there was no previous water supply can be done cheaply? Damn it, I keep getting this wrong.
Okay, I have it now.
My real name is Minister Phil Hogan. Mind your own ffffin business. It’s not your bloody money or your water. So, leave off or I’ll sort youse out.
Same sh1t different day Ireland will always be the same until you get rid of all of the party’s….
Irish Water is a new HSE type monster
My eyes my eyes they’re hurting badly ..Ogochukwu , just cannot take this piece seriously ,whilst there is a Cowen in the room …Time out ..
he could not run a bath of water,,if we are made pay even if we dont use the water,i here and now tell the world i wont pay i will die of the thirst this i swear i will do i cant take it any more
Another royal stitch up of the people by the new few.
Take to the streets people and bring down this farce of a government.
And there it is, they already see themselves as above the law (so to speak). Only here because… and we dont answer to…….
What ever happened to Irish people standing up for what’s right? Or is it just easier to piss and moan on some newspaper blog..
Is it too late to plug the hole?
John tierney ,a fine man
Not sure where the numbers for “consultation” come from – we’re a member of the EU and as such I am sure could avail of consultation services from within member countries who have such schemes in place – free of charge or at a fraction of the cost. It’s not like the government or Irish Water would have to re-invent the wheel.
Ronan
Tenth last line ” hear ” should be “here”
Here here !
Fianna gael and Labour as usual they are very generous with our money.Its not rocket science that if we do have to pay an extra tax just lump it on with the rest of our taxes no need for any advisors or any more noses in the pigs trough!
have your say