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A UK GROUP today launched World Pothole Day, asking people to join them on social media to show the “powers in charge of your road networks” how easy it could be to report potholes by embracing technology.
The Street Repairs group said it formed because it is “passionate about keeping local environments attractive and safe”. It runs a website and app which allow members of the public to report problems with their local roads. It then maps them all out.
They want to expand on this, displaying potholes all over the world, to show how simple it would be for governments to set up a similar system that would help them keep track of the state of their roads.
Today they are asking social media users all over the world to share images of their local potholes with them.
We are certainly no strangers in this country to the pothole…
So, how good or bads are the roads in your area? Tell us in the comment below and send us your pictures to michelle@thejournal.ie or @thejournal_ie.
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Before the bots jump in, I’d like to say I was very proud to go to the water protests I went to.
@Ned Flanders: yes, 100% it is another public sector black hole of money. Jobs for boys. Everyone says it was “I won’t pay for anything” crowd but the most people I met at the protest were decent people including a large portion of the elderly who just didn’t money for another bill.
@DaisyMay: I work 50/60 hours a week and my fiancé works part time while raising two little girls. And when Phil Hogan smirked and had his sip of water, that’s when I said enough was enough.
@Ned Flanders: and iPhone Joan. The audacity of the Labour Party. I’ve never voted for them but I pity anyone who ever did. Traitors to their mandate.
@DaisyMay: well done for not buying the ‘wont pay for anything crowd’ spin. Most of the people I met at the meetings and protests were good decent working citizens or those who were unfortunate to have lost their jobs off the back of the ‘crash’.
You always know you’re winning when the establishment spin machines are doing everything to undermine you
@Ned Flanders: If the money went towards hospitals. schools. yes. but not to billionaires with offshower bank accounts. no way.
@Ned Flanders:
what this analysis says is more time was needed to explain the national interest in doing this.
It failed as many could not comprehend why this was important & instead assumed a victim posture.
Now we are left with a problem that will cost generations to resolve.
Taxing services on a per usage basis and off-balance sheet strategic infrastructure – still needs to be explained to the mob!
@Mairtin Cathbhar: Sorry martin but it was the mob of gangsters in Leinster house that needs all the explaining to. Can you explain why they wasted 500 million on meters instead of fixing the bloody pipes? All the bonuses that were paid out? gym memberships for staff? Was all this in the national interest? If you paid 3 times for something I think you would also feel a victim. The best thing that came out of the water protest is that we are never going back to the old way of believing everything the govt says and if the issues that effect people are strong they will be out on the street again.
@Mairtin Cathbhar: I’m sorry Mairtin but that is absolute rubbish…plenty of people who attended protests and others, like myself who opposed the water charges, are more than educated and informed enough to come to an informed, reasoned conclusion! The fact is people were not willing to have part of an existing tax going into water (ie motor tax) and also have to pay a new utility bill that was specifically for water on top of that…you can’t have it both ways…Either abolish/reduce the existing tax and introduce water charges or keep the status quo and put the money into what you’re saying it’s being put into!!
@DaisyMay: He who must not be named was the big looser in this.Probably had the money spent already.Boo hoo.
@DaisyMay: Not to mention that if they were ever proposed to be re-introduced, it should be ENSHRINED IN LAW, that the water supply be non-profit. FOREVER. End of.
One of the biggest issues I believe was that the government never gave a 100% guarantee that Irish Water would not be sold to a big corporation that has happened in other places
@Dan: Ordinary people simply could not afford another bill,on top of which they always have paid for water . The fact that the government choose to squander the money which should rightly have been invested in water services on other projects is not the fault of taxpayers and yes water should be in the ownership of the people, always. It is insulting that this article lays the success of the property tax down to allowing it’s collection by revenue,anticipating that had such provision been made in respect of water charges then they too would have been successfully implemented, is success measured only by ability to enforce payment in a manner over which people have no control rather than whether the tax is morally,socially etc.,justified.
@Dan: the other major issue is that they went ahead an spent hundreds of millions on water meters when bord gais advised them not to. They were advised to spend the money on infrastructure and introduce flat rat household billing. I’m pretty sure everyone would have been somewhat ok with that!
Next we’re gonna have to deal with property tax and paye hikes in the budget!
@Me_a_monkey: Go one further on the meters bit. The company that installed them was awarded the contract AFTER the deadline, despite not complying with any of the requirements needed in order to be eligible to apply.
@Derek Power: and that company was bought on the cheap by a person who is, shall we say, well in with a certain political party. Thw whole thing stank of cronyism. It is disgusting to think they nearly got away with it. What will happen now though is a more patient approach next time the same suspects want to screw the people.
@Ro Molloy: we needed an Irish solution for an Irish problem and what’s Irish than cronyism?
@Dan: How could they when the sneaky plan was to sell it to you know who all the time.
@Me_a_monkey: Well the minister for finance says as the minister for health is in overspend,in other words he has not got a clue as to what he is doing ,that the promised increases will now not take place,but will the TDs not get their increases as well,you may be assured they will not be left out,,It is now time for the trade union movement to speak up and demand that these promised increases will go ahead,,There is going to have some sort of Law that if s in the case of the minister for health not been able to run his department that he should be sacked,the same as in any other job,What qualifications has this minister got as to running a health service as this is a business ,why should the general public who are taxed to the hilt take any more of this,,the same goes for every other department,if you cant do the job sack them,this should apply from the top down,then there is the big pensions of b retired and those still there this must stop,and carrying pensions from The EU as well,it is better than playing the lotto,The old aged pension should be indexed linked to keep up with inflation,and charges
I reckon they’ll attempt it again at some point.
@Conor Walsh: Any idiot politician to try and introduce this scam again will be booted into touch again, like that corrupt halwit Kelly.
@Conor Walsh: It’s not over by a long shot. Water will be privatised, like the Electricity supply, the EU will get the blame. The FFG government have already put all the pieces into place to achieve this.
FG need the “supply and confidence” agreement to continue to carry their plan out. So all you hear from FF on the subject is hot air.
@Ronan Sexton: You can sing it.I’m still waiting to see Kelly at my door looking for my vote.I haven’t forgotten his” Mini Phil” bullyboy antics.
@Conor Walsh: excessive water charges coming in with the lowest allowance per person in the EU 125lts per person a day everyone of us will be paying.
@Mac Dara Powell: Once you pay on a metered based charge, the EU will insist that the supply of domestic water must be opened to privatisation.
FFG will try and place the blame on the EU, but without FFG putting the pieces in place the EU could insist on nothing.
A lot of money squandered on metering which could have been better spent and IW is still a disaster
@☘: yes, wonder how much we still paying into this? When the metering caused a leak in my house. The council came out to fix it.
@DaisyMay: Yes I think the counsel still at left with repairs while IW got all the money
@☘: those bonuses have to be paid….
@DaisyMay: This corrupt fake company physically do nothing. It was never the intention of this scam to do anything. The councils still do and will always do the actual work. I notice the usual simpletons who support corruption are very quiet here today.
@DaisyMay: thats the way with crony capitalism. Just look at the private health sector. If a patient suffers complications during a private medical procedure they will be shipped to the public hospital for treatment. It happens regularly with maternity patients. Any complications ship em to the public hospitals. Privatise the profits and scoalise the losses.
Did the committee take into account that the people could not afford it
@FlopFlipU: old people is this country can’t afford their heating bills and their water. Made to be sold off probably to a foreign entity.
@DaisyMay: Just wait until carbon taxes kick off, this is ridiculous that applying a carbon tax will impact our pollution,we need to heat our homes/cook/travel but we are being hit with extra charges on top of the most expensive charges for energy,it is a dream tax and does nothing to address the real polluters.
@Honeybee: If they were serious about tackling CO2 levels they would make fitting insulation cheap for all, instead it costs 10 to 15K to externally insulate a semi D, another ripoff.
@Peter Hughes: The old Communist built housing apartments privately owned now here in Bulgaria are all being made more energy efficient. All getting new double glazed windows, balconies being refurbished and incorporated in the room, insulated outside to a high standard, repainted, and the roof tops repaired.
It will not cost the owners one cent.
EU grants are available to cover the costs. It wouldn’t happen in Ireland unless there was a brown envelope consideration for cronies and vested interest.
If revenue wasn’t responsible for collection of the household tax..would there be 98% compliance..?don’t think so
@Kieran OKeeffe: Agree 100% with you. On the other hand if Revenue was responsible for collection of Water Charges would it have been successful? In the case of Property Tax only those who own their homes were levied whereas in the case of Water Charges all householders were being billed and therein lies the difference.
@Mary Dunphy: The reason Revenue could not collect the charge was because Irish Water had to be a set up as a private company so it could be sold off. Revenue cannot collect on behalf of private companies .
I remain astonished that property tax got through without a whisper, however FG ‘s intent on removing caps soon will I suspect change people’s perceptions of this outrageous tax.
@Joseph Dempsey: the reason property tax went through was because people in social housing are not charged it, the government were very clear. If everyone using local services were charged it like it should have been you would have seen large protests.
@John: government very clever.
@John: no, because the revenue will just take it if you don’t pay it.
@Joseph Dempsey: tax on the family home which for a lot of people is actually a huge liability, certainly not an asset
@DaisyMay: revenue should take it from social welfare as well, they use local services as well.
@Joseph Dempsey: i dont think it got through without a whisper , thats why it had to be given over to Revenue , it gave people no chance to avoid paying it.
It’s grand sure Dr.Phil got a jolly off the back of it
Can someone please tell me what, if anything, do we get for paying property tax?
@Dave C: Irish Water.
@Mary Dunphy: brilliant,and of course only people who bought their own home.
@Dave C: we are not supposed to get anything , its not for our benefit , thats for sure.
A tax to far , on foot of a property tax, lots of Stealth taxes ,and general cost of living going thru the roof and wages stagnant ,and just add John Tierney s name to it and a couple of Audi’s ,and big Phil’s bullying , two minutes to write what everybody knows all the spin in the world will never change it
So they’re having a seminar to discuss the proper way to implement double taxation.
How they can ignore increased Car Tax, VAT and income tax to pay for water is a great trick.
The fact is the extra tax money that was imposed was wasted on other political projects.
Discuss that at the seminar and we might learn something.
They could try introducing it in 7 to 10 year period and it is still doomed to failure, because the Irish people will not pay a third time for water.
A phased plan of pipe repair first. Binding agreement to retain Irish water in public ownership and then finally metering would have been acceptable. instead the fouled up all three. And wasted billions
@JustOneScoop: you do realise that’s why they needed to be able to borrow money, to actually fix the pipes due to decades of non-investment and EU rules wouldn’t permit the state to borrow that much due to the deficit rules, hence why it has to be a seperate semi-state company, like ESB. Now there is a completely inadequate funding source for repairs due to limited borrowing
@Vocal Outrage: the take the money out of previous government s pensions
@Vocal Outrage: plenty of investment, it was just squandered
@Gerard Heery: because that would definitely be enough to fix the whole countries water infrastructure
Joan Burton and Labour sold out the working person on both this issue and the pension
A tax to far to protect minority.. FFG kept pushing taxes and the simple facts are, people had enough..
People simply had enough of taxes as FFG sought to secure the well being of a minority. They continue this trait today, but IW was a step to far..
How come those responsible for such collosal waste of tax payers money are not arrested?
The Local Property Tax is just that, a tax that can’t be avoided. If a referendum had been held ensuring Irish Water would always stay in public ownership then maybe there wouldn’t have been so much opposition to it.
@EillieEs: there would. People would still oppose paying twice for something and have woken up to the rampant corruption here.
People can’t pay anymore. FFG pushed to far to secure minority in society..
And the government has learned nothing from the water protests,,The garda were used as security guards,and then as bully boys to try and deter the protesters,and they the guards are at it again been used as body guards for landlords,with crime aincluding house break ins all over the place ,people living in rural areas been the victims,not a word of protest from the political parties,including Sinn Fein
It’s a pity people like Brendan Ogle and Paul Murphy jumped in and took the credit
@Jimmy jones: I don’t know about Paul Murphy, but, Brendan Ogle and Dave Gibney put serious work into the Right2Water movement and I say fair play to them!
The Irish water belongs to the Irish people, it will never be privatised.
They’ll push for privatization. You’ll see. As soon as water starts being valued at its proper rate in the same way oil etc are. They’ll push for privatization because no capitalist worth their salt would allow that profit to go uncollected. The problem is it will decimate poor people. It’s going to be a real crappy future for a lot of people. It already is in other areas of the world.
@Adam Kelly: We simply can’t allow that
The only reason the LPT was successful because revenue were involved…. Bully boy tactics!!!
Govts are too keen to keep going to the same well (paye taxpayers)and haven’t/can’t accept that the well can only go so far. Majority of protesters were pushed to the pin of their collar with another bill and simply could not afford it. That and the sanctimonious Hogan/Kelly duo sneering at us from the tv and newspapers.
@Tracey Nally: It was glorious seeing these currupt half wits with notions being put back in their box. That alone made to whole thing worthwhile.
@Ronan Sexton: *corrupt
It’s bizarre that we protested in our thousands about €160 annual charge for a natural resource, while USC costs us all incredibly more each year, was left slide by
@Paddy Downey: again , USC is collected by Revenue , people have no choice.
How many taxes and bills do they want the public to pay ? Usc was temporary if i recall,dee forbes wants to hike tv licence to watch more bullshit,w
@Jono: Well you can simply refuse to pay the tv scam. Why anyone pays this scam is beyond me.
A full day has passed and still no mention of this big news
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/?search=Eu+copyright+directive&lang=en&searchheadlines=1
@limofax: Time to leave the EU?
@David Walshe:
More like time to put pressure on FG’s MEPS that voted for this push for internet censorship.
Captured also on Gemma’s Ted talk:
@David Walshe: thank for that link it’s so true
‘Government’ has destroyed any semblance of a social contract that was in Ireland since the ’50′s.
Now the ‘what’s in it for me’ party just want more and more tax take.
Don’t forget the corruption of the installation of water meters, giving the contract to a friend just smacks of the good oul boom times, polticians all friendly with their business friends.
So it was a political cock up, (no surprise). And leo then telling us the Trump visit is gonna cost us millions, politicians and their selective money wastage!
Finally posted. Couple of repeat points guys. Sorry ;-)
Bills for excessive water use will fall in the letter boxes come the new year water charges are still there by the back door we were shafted
Property tax was introduced without discussion or warning and due to being collected by revenue people felt they had very little choice. The problem with the water tax aside from being a transparent cash grab on the already squeezed middle under the guise of “conservation” was that people had the warning and information to implement a proper response….so basically the opposite of this insulting and condescending “research piece” that implies that if we, like those frogs in the water sat there and became accustomed to the rising heat we wouldn’t jump out when it boiled…. essentially its down to the fact that ffg didn’t get adequate time to divide and conquer be with their spin machine..
@Anthony Cassidy: this seems in contravention of the new GDPR regs.
like it or not ^^^ we will PAY AGAIN ;-(
How (Not) To Do Public Policy really, so how to be antidemocratic is another way of saying that?
Absolute insulting nonsense of an article that paints the average citizen as a simple minded lemming who’ll meekly accept anything if manipulated properly. The reason water charges failed was because people were already stretched to breaking point (with property tax, universal social charge, VAT, increased income tax, and spiralling cost of living) and weren’t willing to pay for water a *second* time… And now the government is spitefully reintroducing water charges in the form of “excessive use” this is how it starts and then the bar will be lowered and lowered and soon enough we will have the water charges tens of thousands of people protested against… the sheer contempt this government has for the electorate is startling all I can say is a people need to continue as they started and just don’t pay otherwise this will happen again and again
IW set up for sale. People seen so. Hence massive, expensive failure.
Those responsible for such costs smile and slide away. Average Paddy jailed…
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