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Updated at 9.31am
FORMER FINE GAEL Minister Fergus O’Dowd had a torrid time on Morning Ireland this morning, as he appeared for an interview to talk about his blistering attack on the Government in today’s Irish Independent.
The Louth TD was effectively sacked as junior minister in the Department of the Environment in the summer reshuffle. He writes in today’s paper that the set-up of the semi-state has been an “unmitigated disaster”.
O’Dowd, who developed the legislation to set up the body, contends that there has been “major communications failure” at Irish Water in how it deals with customers.
Host Cathal Mac Coille took O’Dowd to task on several fronts on the issues he raised in the article, in particular his contention that “a lot of unemployed people tell me they cannot pay” and his assertion that the Government should do more to improve support services for hard-pressed householders.
Who said ‘no’?
The Fine Gael TD said he had raised the concerns several times while the semi-state was being set up, but in the course of the interview refused to point the finger at either Phil Hogan, his former line minister, or Taoiseach Enda Kenny, saying he wouldn’t pinpoint who rejected his concerns as he didn’t want to personalise the issue.
“Was this problem discussed by anyone in Government?” O’Dowd was asked.
“Well it was discussed by me all the time. At every single meeting I went to,” the TD replied, later saying he raised the issue with “the Department, with Irish Water, everywhere I spoke, everywhere I went”.
Mac Coille asked several times who had said ‘no’ to his ideas. When Hogan’s name was raised, O’Dowd replied:
“Phil Hogan in fairness to him did the best he could,” before adding that he didn’t want to personalise his criticism.
“The point was that I made my point of view known to everybody,” O’Dowd said.
As Mac Coille repeated his line of questioning, the Louth deputy conceded that his concerns were never acted upon because ”I wasn’t the Minister for a start… I wasn’t in Government”.
I proposed lots of things and Phil Hogan ran with many of them and the Government had a decision to make.
O’Dowd said he made his case about water charge exemptions with “everybody in the political system”….
I have made it directly to the Taoiseach. I made it directly to Phil Hogan. I made it directly to everybody that listens to me.
“I made it in public. I make it now again.”
Enda’s reaction
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has been reacting to O’Dowd’s criticism of Irish Water.
Speaking to reporters this morning, Kenny contended that O’Dowd had been “voicing concern about connecting with people in really explaining the reasons for Irish Water and the options that are open”.
He said that he hadn’t read the TD’s op-ed but that as “the minister who guided this through” O’Dowd had been…
“…just making the point that there’s a need for constant engagement with the community and the people so that everybody understands the need for setting up Irish Water and the need for making a contribution to a commodity that’s very previous and that’s costing €1.2 billion at the moment per year”.
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Why is it always a “joint” operation…. ? Could they not just say combined ?
@Aurelio Na Fodhla: Only when it’s not about cannabis
@Aurelio Na Fodhla: I always have a wee smile when they use the phrase “joint operation”. I remember a headline from one of the evening papers years ago that read, “Firefighters stoned in Dolphins Barn”. At least they weren’t drunk !
Just think of the tax revenue if it was legal and controlled in the same manner as alcohol & cigarettes. Added benefit of not having to deploy gards & customs agents wasting time over something they cannot eradicate. If the found €2million worth you can be sure there is €200million they didn’t find.
Senseless comment, the majority of people who consume cannabis (or alcohol) are not addicts and enjoy their lives just as much as anyone else. End the stigma please.
Only here for the comments – Bonus
Points will be awarded for originality.
Hash heads pxxs heads whatever else.
Can Irish people go for a swim.
Just enjoy life without adicitions
@The Grand Nagus: hash heads? Nice 1970′s terminology there.
@JustBEERbarry: Sneer all you like, Those hash heads wreaked havoc in the 70’s! YOU WEREN’T THERE MAN
@JustBEERbarry:
Whatever you want to call it its addiction.
I lived with stoners years ago.
Terrible experience.
Paranoid bunch.
@The Grand Nagus: Not as bad as a house of drinkers. Nothing worse!
@Tomo:
True but it all addiction
We have a lovely country..
Go out and enjoy it
Its ten times better without been pxxs
Or stonned
@Alan Biddulph: if you remember it you weren’t there either man!!
@The Grand Nagus: Tell that to the thousands of people who glorify coffee addiction. Caffeine is a lot less healthy than a joint at night!
@Tomo:
Ahh the denial.
OK don’t drink coffee also.
@The Grand Nagus: swim away but just cause people have a pint or a joint doesn’t make em junk!es or pi55 heads. Judgy Judgy like……
@The Grand Nagus: so says the bloke with an addiction to talk absolute ball ox.
@The Grand Nagus: so tell us, were you always this judgemental?
@Tomo: Total nonsense
@Christopher Byrne: what’s nonsense? The part about the house full of drinkers? Or caffeine being an addiction? Or caffeine being more harmful than cannabis? I’m sure you have a watertight arguement.
@The Grand Nagus: sounds like you’re addicted to the oul swimming there. Probably a water-head. Dihydrogen monoxide addiction is a serious issue but the guards are afraid of taking on Big Uisce. I’d say you couldn’t go more than a few days without a hit of H2O or the withdrawals would be the end of you. And you’d probably say you’re just a recreational user. But really it’s all addiction.
@Mac Muinteoir: you’re right, if it’s sea swimming this individual is engaging in its 100% addictive.
I know several daily swimmers and they tell me its an addiction, a buzz.
Funnily enough all these seaswimmers I know also like a pint and/or a smoke too. Huh, weird. Or maybe he likes to refer to it as something else not quite as judgemental as an addiction/buzz.
€2 million for that amount is ridiculous. Do they actually just make up a random figure they think will sound good?
@D: it’s priced per ten spot
@D: No “quarter” given when announcing big busts it seems!
Following the who what where when and how model of journalism I found this article lacking in substance. The lack of detail was astonishing. No Garda or official was named. The place where the drugs were discovered was anonymised. There was no sense that anyone was identified as owning the drugs and so would be liable for prosecution. That might have made a difference to their ongoing illegal activity. It’s like a press release from the Revenue was elevated into an article without ever passing through the interrogation of a journalist’s brain to examine the significance of the information as news.
@feargal ‘2 metres’ de cantuin: covering an informers tracks methinks
Good that they’re finally breaking ground on the drugs that we see destroying lives on a daily bases, by that I mean Heroin, don’t see the same arguments from the usual ‘heads’ on those articles, mostly because they’re really only interested IN the argument, and twisting the screw on those it does matter too. Stay classy ya’ll
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