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 TAOISEACH HAS been told that “the bonus culture is back” and “alive and well” in Irish Water by the Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin.
Speaking at Leaders’ Questions in the Dail this afternoon, Martin raised the issue of bonuses being paid to staff at Irish Water, the new State utility that has been the subject of controversy in recent weeks, and asked Enda Kenny why the government approved the bonuses.
Kenny described the payments as “performance pay” and said that they would be paid on the basis of staff in Irish Water “achieving a particular set of criteria and targets”.
He said he has asked the Minister for Environment “in the interests of transparency and accountability” to have the Irish Water chief executive, John Tierney, supply him with the criteria for the payments so that “everybody will understand what is involved if an employee is to achieve an output of work that would allow him or her to achieve a performance pay rating”.
He said Tierney will be happy to lay out the information and pointed out that Irish Water “will be scrutinised by the Oireachtas here and by civilian society because it’s subject to the Freedom of Information Act”.
But Martin responded: “The bonus culture is back, is basically what you’re saying and it’s alive and well in Irish Water.”
Martin said that bonuses had been approved despite the objections of government ministers and claimed the coalition went against its own advice in setting up Irish Water as a subsidiary of Bord Gais, something a report from Pricewaterhouse Coopers had advised against.
Kenny said that the present situation with water provision cannot be allowed to continue, saying that 18,000 people on public water supplies have to either boil their water or have restrictions in place and that supply in Dublin is at 96 per cent.
“This cannot continue and it shouldn’t continue,” he said.
Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams said that “what passes for a public health service is crumbling before our eyes” and called on the Taoiseach to reverse cuts to the sector this year.
Kenny said that Adams’s comments that “the health service is crumbling” were “an insult” to people working on the frontline.
He said that the number of people on trollies in hospitals is 40 per cent lower this year than two years ago and said the actions of Health Minister James Reilly have “brought about improvement”.
For the Technical Group, WUAG TD Seamus Healy raised the issue of pylons and the Eirgrid consultation process, citing health concerns and a letter that James Reilly sent to his Cabinet colleague, Pat Rabbitte.
Kenny pointed out that Reilly’s letter concerned underground cabling and said that it was important to analyse the submissions to Eirgrid which he noted have numbered over 30,000.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Great. Posting a cheque. What year is this? 1990?
@Finbarr Brady: you forgot you are in Ireland
Why send cheques that’s going to cost 5? Million € . Transfer the funds back into bank accounts. Who uses cheques now days . Electronic banking is more used now than ever They seem to be making things difficult & wasting even more money that could be spent on infrastructure. Again abolish Irish water and set up a division in each of local county councils to carry out repairs etc it’s just waste after waste with this gov & it’s the us the tax payers yet again . I do also understand that older ppl don’t do on line banking . Maybe offer a cheuque or transfer. Something not making sense with this operation.
@Keith: perhaps because there were more ways than electronic funds transfer to pay the bill and after the uproar when IW requested PPS numbers I’d say they don’t want to ask people for bank details.
Can someone tell me how much this will have cost us (consultancy fees, Irish water dept, water meter installation, policing protests, court cases, refunds and so on) 2/300 million? How many people could we get off hospital trolleys with that kind of money?
@Alan Madden: probably zero in this country
I remember the blitz and even avalanche of comments that the vast majority had paid their water charges, that everyone would have to pay very soon , the threats that there would be disconnection of water supply, huge fines, penalties, criminal convictions for non payment of water charges and all kinds of alarmist threats and promises. Nothing materialized.
The refund shows that the water charges are dead and buried at least for now.
One should never concede to threats. Once threatened, no concession.
@Fiona deFreyne: what you have said is mostly true. I was happy to pay for water though even if I was in a minority. I like the consumer pays principle and I also like the way IW’s income stream would be independent and that they would fix the leaks around the country and modernise the entire network. IW itself I wasn’t fond of and think it didn’t do itself many favours from the onset. But if it had been done right I would have been okay with the concept.
@Sean: if it had been done honestly, fairly, without PPS number and a proper exemption for those on low incomes paid to a statutory corporation which could not be privatised and a proper financial model, I would have been persuaded but when I was give 3 different and conflicting reasons for demanding my PPS number, I recognised it was a phishing scam.
When I heard the threats I got really angry and marched.
@Fiona deFreyne: I have seen the water meters being introduced in Europe. It was a simple operation, one house or apartment fitted within ten to 15 min by two workers. What was happening here was a lovely example how to mismanage funds. They spent probably more money on installation of the meters than in entire Germany with a population of 80 million plus.
@Fiona deFreyne: Agree.
Trickle Trickle in a Jar
Uncle Phil you went too far
Accusing us of being polluted
Water never made us flutered
I always paid for my publicly delivered water services in my Motor Tax. Then I had to pay for everybody else in 2008 when my motor tax went up from €350 p.a. to €1072 p.a. because I couldn’t afford a new “low CO2″ car and still drive an old “petrol” car – not a diesel soot polluter!
Trickle Trickle Motor Tax
Taken for to fund the Jax
Paying once is very Slick
But paying twice takes the Mick
Ireland a sad place.
@Jindrich Marz: also when looking into to meters they were using, they second hand, and when i rang Irish water to ask for the calibration certificate for my meter, they told me they weren’t calibrated….
Complete amateur mess….
How many “customers” did Irish Water originally claim?
@Dave C:
Eurostat ridiculed Irish Water/CSO/FG’s claims.
@Dave C: I was thinking exactly the same. 1.23 million according to this: http://www.thejournal.ie/irish-water-customers-registered-around-the-country-2001548-Mar2015/. Why am I not surprised. Irish water cant count either just like the Gardai.
@Ian Oh: eligible customers probably refers to those that actually paid, hence the lower figure
@Ian Oh: That story you’ve linked says 990,000 IW customers also. 1.23 mil includes people who registered but who are on group schemes.
Lol, this will be interesting
Not been rude i did not register,did not put in for the conservation grant,as far as im consernd iw does not exist
@Sandra Clifford: your not been rude you had sense like I & half of country I just hope ppl learn after this & that Fine Gael get punished next election for this mess
None are Customers of the Scam… IW is a Scam….. none intend to become ‘ Customers ‘ of IW… abolish IW. Give Water back to CO Councils.. the people pay€ 1.4 plus billions per year. None will pay again.
Posting cheques,more squandering of money.but it’s so easy when it’s public money.
If nothing else they are consistent!
Complete clusterf#@*k
They have decided to turn the refunds down to a trickle!
Always remember and never forget those who covet your childrens water!
No votes for Pro Irish Water parties, FG, FF, Lab, Greens
Not even a 10th choice!
Phil Hogan got in on the 13 th count, Alan Kelly on the last!
Customer???..Lol. what a shambles. Imagine a company spending hundreds of millions to send out billings to customers, then spending more money giving that money back!!..
@Dj: So you’d prefer they didn’t give it back or what?
@Ryan Boyle: Wouldn’t bother me either way.
@Dj: I bet you’d find something to moan about.
@Ryan Boyle: I found your sister,so ya!
@Ryan Boyle: I would like to see the process being ‘opt in’ for return of monies and if you didn’t opt in by the end of the year all of your entitlement was shifted to Focus Ireland and see some good being done.
Would allow the people of Ireland to send out a huge message.
Why does the government want every single detail about you, why???
@Alois Irlmaier:
You don’t think it already knows your PPS number??
I hate that smug bas#×rd. I tell my kids not to use the hate word but god i really do hate that slug.
@garry murphy: he is not just smug, he is a big bully boy.
Phil Hogan : smugness personified,”Cheers me dears”
I was not stupid enough to pay in the first place
@Sandra Clifford: Some people had no other choice. People selling their house to buy another were told they had to pay. I was one of them. The solicitors for both parties said no contracts would be signed unless water charges were paid. If I said no then I’d be still living in a place I didn’t want to live in. You can pucker out your chin and yell NO all you want but you wouldn’t be able to sell your house.
That’s great. I’ll get it back just in time for Christmas also with the reduction in the property tax it will be a very merry Christmas
I beleive people should pay for water, but, talk about reward for abject Failure”? Just looking at, and listening to that over paid, Bull in a China Shop, CLOWN, that is Phil Hogan would turn one’s stomach and make one change one’s mind. Yet another one of Fine Gael’s and Enda Kenny’s idiotic appointments !
@Randal McNally: I agree water services have to be paid for BUT ..
Trickle Trickle Motor Tax
Taken for to fund the Jax
Paying once is very Slick
But paying twice takes the Mick
I have always paid for my public water services and now pay for other’s also since 2008 when my Motor Tax went up from €350 p.a. to €1072 p.a. What an unfair unjust system of tax. A sad place Ireland!
I was living with family and paying half the charges. Definitely should be returned through the bank accounts. I’ll never see it otherwise.
What a waste giving 100e back to the public could we not spend it on something else.
@dangermouse: sorry, may be mid reading, are you suggesting not to give out the refunds ?
Didn’t register didn’t pay stayed with the winners so don’t have to worry about a refund #wewontpay
Hogan must be prat # 1. He will surely go down in Irish political history as the biggest turd ever.
This is what happens when you privatise water!
Do they deduct the €100 grant received from the total amount paid to IW?
@Samantha Gillingham: no. Why would they when Kelly clearly stated it had nothing to do with IW
What’s this “our customers” crap.
@mrmeade: They have to call you something. That’s how language works.
No details, no cheque, no meter no problem.
Trickle Trickle Water Grant
Greasing palms to stop the Rant
Beggars craving for a Crust
Took the soup, pay you Must
Keep the monies and use it to upgrade Merlin Park hospital to make a great hospital in the west
Oh my God, you mean they’ll need to know where I live and what name to put on the cheque? The horror!
BE very careful of giving these b/&€Rd’s any personal details your refund may be small change towards your new bill
Ensure your details are correct, or they’ll send big Phil round to yours to sort you out and reduce you to a trickle…..Look at him there the haemorroid
As I got the conservation grant, I’ll be up a €100, which is nice.
Get a PSC card and identify yourself to Irish Water. They’ll get out pps numbers someway.
Maybe they are sending Hogan as well
We thought the Voting Machines were a fiasco only in the ha’penny place compared to Hogans /Kelly’s Irish Water
5 Million! Another waste of money. I for one have no problem paying for water as long as it’s run properly and there are no outrageous wages or bonuses. But the whole set up and approach was an absolute joke.
have your say