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A FAMILY IN Wicklow have been living in fear of losing their home over the last six weeks as gorse fires raged around them.
Father-of-one Brendan Beirne who lives in the Sally Gap area said his family has been evacuated four times in the last month and a half.
“The three previous times were at night when the fire got within metres of the house but on Wednesday, the flames were all around the house, almost engulfing it and without the fire brigade it would have been gone.”
The young family have been forced to take refuge with other family members and only got back into their home on Sunday because of the smoke from the dying fire and the smell from the bog that was still burning.
It happens every year and it’s just because people think they can light fires to clear gorse, sometimes it can be malicious, or it can be a combination of things but people think they can just walk away from it with no consequences and just let the wind take it.
Beirne believes the people starting these fires are putting lives at risk, as Wednesday’s fire required more than 20 firefighters and five fire engines for more than eight hours just to stop his and his neighbours homes from going up in flames.
“It was absolutely necessary but there was a huge amount of Wicklow fire services just trying to contain these fires in the mountains – what would have happened if there was something else big in the area they were needed at?”
He is hoping stories like his will encourage people in the area to think twice before setting fires to clear gorse.
“We’re snowed in in the winter and burnt out in the summe but we’re not going anywhere, it’s our home and we’re not going to let it beat us, but it’s frustrating to say the least. The thing we deal with on a day to day basis now is :”Will the house be there when we get home?”
For now, it appears the fires have died down but it will be a long summer for this man and his family.
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This is not down to weather but the scandalous lack of investment in Ireland’s clean water system for decades. Will it be sorted soon? Not holding my breath.
@Ó Connmhaigh:
In order to invest you need money
@Ó Connmhaigh: maybe if the Water Charges had been retained, they’d have the funds to do something about it.
@Pat Mangan: careful now Pat, they won’t like logic like that
@Pat Mangan: Nope. Even if everybody paid the charge, it wouldn’t cover the cost of keeping IW up and running. €500,000,000+ wasted on meters, something like €2,000,000,000 poured into IW in total.
Thats a lot of pipes that could have been replaced.
@The Risen: nobody values or respects anything that they get for nothing.
@The Risen:
Maybe a lot of pipes but still a small fraction of the amount which need to be replaced. No matter how much you try to argue that the IW setup costs would cover the amount need to fix the infrastructure you will fail. It is estimated that 23 Billion is required for investment and then there is a requirement for ongoing investment too.
@Pat Mangan: what part of “even if there was 100% compliance, it wouldnt cover the cost of sending out the bills”, dont you get Pat?
Half a billion wasted on meters that were not needed.
Then again, those fleet of Audis didnt pay fir themselves.
@Pat Mangan: No they would have more money for their bonuses and new gym equipment and maybe a few new 4X4 BMW just to get around. Don’t be so naive. Water Charges being used to fix the system is like saying paying road tax will be used on the roads. For god sake, you are living in Ireland where nothing fits what it’s supposed to.
@The Risen: And what about the funds they had intended in borrowing, using the charges collected as leverage?
Oops, forgot you (and your…ahem… “buddy”, Beyond Belief) don’t really do numbers.
@Pat Mangan: Pat, I’ve a full time job for the last 20+ years and have paid my taxes, as does my wife. In addition, 66% of the motor tax we pay goes into the irish water black hole.
I don’t get free water, never have. Neither do you.
@Nick Allen: We spent billions creating a defunct entity would have been better spent repairing and upgrading rather than farming it off to another useless entity.
@Austin Rock:
I agree the money would have been better spent on the infrastructure but that is only because FG made a complete pig’s ear of setting up IW. My personal view is that we need a central water utility and we need to pay some sort of consumption fee. This fee needs to be reinvested into our water infrastructure and most importantly the ownership of our water needs rot be protected and kept away from private ownership
@Nick Allen: If you genuinely want our water kept in public ownership, then you owe a debt of gratitude to the water protesters. They are the reason that it has not been sold already. Check the wording of the water services act 2012 and the original T&Cs of Irish Water if you don’t believe me.
@wacker macker: THERE IS NO ROAD TAX IN THIS COUNTRY.
@Nick Allen: Which is why Nick, Irish water should not have squandered our money, up to a billion euro, I won’t rehash the arguments, the current mess of now having to refund all ‘bills’ says a lot, O Connmhaigh is correct ,this is not about snow and trying to blow it in our eyes is childish, the truth is out.
@The Risen: Question for you, Mr Risen man. If the taxes you pay entitle you to have water and sewage services first brought to your home and then maintained by a third party (whether it be your local Council, Irish Water, or anything else)…then why should rural dwellers who pay the same level of taxes not have some similar entitlement, instead of having to pay group water scheme charges, or maintain their own well, pump, pipes, septic tank, etc.? And I’m not talking about bringing water & sewage mains to every rural house. Just maybe some sort of tax credits against having to meet these charges, if those things are actually supposed to be looked after from our general taxation, as you say, and as they’re done for yourself?
@Ó Connmhaigh: It’s down to people not insulating pipes on their property resulting in leaks, and leaving their taps running during the recent cold spell and pouring “Ireland’s clean water” straight down the drain. If there was a payment system in place for above average use this would not be happening. If there was a monetary penalty for wasting water it might encourage people to insulate their water pipes correctly so instances of freezing pipes do not arise, meaning they can leave the taps off and ensure that “Ireland’s clean water” remains in the reservoirs for those that need it.
@The Risen: for a guy with a full time job you seem to spend a lot of your time hiding behind a fake name spouting clap trap…you are either working in for or in a union or as a councillor for SF
@Pat Mangan: who’s getting water for nothing ? Bonus culture – billions of euros in taxes wasted – zero accountability etc. If anyone is getting a sh*t load of something for nothing then that’s definitely your pals in the quango. We continue to find water via general taxation – everyone pays. Simple isn’t it?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: There’s not but in fairness they only renamed it in the 70′s cause they got rid of road tax to put 20p on a gallon of petrol. Couldn’t bring it back by the same name. If it was truly a Motor tax why do you only have to have it on public roads? Why do you not need it for tractor lawnmowers or diggers, or tractors?
@The Risen: Meters are invaluable in detecting leaks, I don’t think that money was wasted.
@Nick Allen: “In order to invest you need money” – €16 millions spent already on corporate headquarters lease (10years) plus €120k annually on extra parking spaces for 500 staff.
@Jumperoo: “Increased supports announced to improve rural water services”Irish Independent “15/12/17
@Jumperoo: I fully support a tax credit for people who supply their own water. I would also support abolishing VAT on anything to do with essential services such as water, refuse and so on.,
@Brian Cunningham: Something like 7% of leaks happen between the meter and the dwelling, the other 93% happen on the mains side. District and mains metering would detect far more leaks. As disclosed at the public hearings on the matter by one of the expert witnesses, the only reason to fit meters to homes is to commodify water for sale.
@Pat Mangan: thats why you are a BIFFO….get a grip
@Pat Mangan:
2 billion euro investment required over the next 4 years.
2 billion spent on setting up Irish Water.
I trust that answers your question Pat.
@Nuala Mc Namara: A token gesture that increases the subsidy that group water scheme members can avail of. It still doesn’t cover the full cost for these people, unlike people on mains water in towns and cities, who have the full cost covered from their famous general taxation. As regards people with own wells & septic tanks – nothing announced other than considering increasing grants that you MIGHT be eligible for when first installing them. Nothing as regards covering the cost of ongoing maintenance and repair, in the way that people on mains water have pipes (both in and out) maintained and repaired when necessary. You’ll have to try again….
@The Risen: Well then, you’re the first I’ve asked that question of who actually agrees with me. Others rabbit on about how ‘everything else is cheaper in the country, so that evens it out’ and ‘that’s the price you pay for living in the middle of nowhere’.
@Nick Allen: There was plenty of money for investment. The problem is a functioning water infrastructure wouldn’t justify metered charges, or privatisation.
@Pat Mangan:
“nobody values or respects anything that they get for nothing.”
I would agree with the sentiment but when it comes to water , paye earners are being taxed heavily for it for years . the money tree has stopped producing surplus incomes since austerity and double taxation ( usc , fuel pension health surcharges , property taxes , welfare increases and thousands of refugees and illegal immigrants to pay for ) were introduced by fianna gael coalition .
Irish water is still in situ but lying low wasting money . the millions spent on pensions and bonuses ,quango’s and propaganda machines would have fixed some amount of leaks . meters were a total waste of revenue when there was such urgent work to be done . why wasn’t irish water given the national toll roads franchise and let one pay the other without the gravy of road tolls going to foreign investors .
@Pat Mangan: Would you like to explain to us “non-believers” when in the history of the state water was supplied to house holds and business FREE?
@William Clay:
“Half a billion wasted on meters that were not needed.”
half a billion that phil Hogan and irish water had the means of saving . Siemens offered to install water meters for free and when questioned by Eamonn Gilmore on this replied ” WE DIDN’T BOTHER WITH IT ”
MIND YOU WHOSE FAVOURITE FRIEND BENIFITTED FROM THIS DECISION along with being handed a viable company to roll out the meters while joe public wrote off company debts in the form of a bank bailout. still awaiting the outcome of background shenanigans on the sale of site serve.
@Ó Connmhaigh:
You forgot to mention burst pipes and by a lot of house holders leaving their taps running at night
@Nick Allen:
until our elected govts stop seeing themselves as a registered charity who can cream off donations ( taxes ) for themselves and take on board the need to be frugal and accountable for the spending of them we will never have the reinvestment you seek . only by protest and refusal to pay for inept quango’s will we force accountability . imagine if the water protest had not taken place do you honest think we would be living in water heaven with a company whose first instinct was to line their own and their inflated employees pockets . now that their game was called out they tell us they need redundancies . a referendum on ownership of irish water is the first step to having a responsible accountable water infrastructure utility instead of one that’s a commodity broker.
@Ó Connmhaigh: they should bring in some sort of water charge. Ohhhh!!! Wait! Dohhhhhhh!!!
@Tommy Roche: Are you Enda mate or what, FFS leaving the tap on .. That has totally been debunked
There was a huge leak in Dublin from 20 to 40% of total depending on who was covering up the story from one area and noting to do with personal usage ..
All paying per usage would do would cause for the lesser well off to ration water while the wealthy could fill their pools and not care ..
The only way paying for usage wil work is when everything is pay per use including Education and Health for example.
Irish Water should have been investigated and scrapped but instead we have a Super Quango and cost 3 to 4 billion again depending on who is telling lies.
How did John Tierney got the top job ?? after his failure with the Poolbeg Incinerator and, how did the top people of the PR company working on the Poolbeg Incinerator, nameley RPS CEO Gerry Grant who got Head of Asset Management @ IW and how did Elizabeth Arnnet the Head of Propaganda at RPS go the same job at IW after the EU deemed the contract with RPS and Dublin City Council illegal and shut it down …
@Jumperoo: I’ll take up your challenge!
Gov grants of up to €2031.58 are available re wells according to Dept of Housing etc!
Homeowners in urban areas are responsible for water pipes inside their boundary walls.
By the way Ireland was fined €2M plus DAILY fines of €12,000 over septic tank compliance failures reported in 2013 & I didn’t hear any urban people complain about that taken from the country’s taxes!
I grew up in a rural area with a well & septic tank and not once did my parents or neighbours complain about urban water users!
@The Risen: thank god your here,
What would we do without your expert knowledge of the water infrastructure and your expertise in water treatment,financing/funding,engineering etc etc etc.
Your simply an all round genius.
@The Risen: plenty of people in rural Ireland pay all of those taxes and pay for their water after that.
@Nuala Mc Namara: you are quite correct – urban water infrastructure was paid for in council charges on new builds, and is a giant collective where the cost per unit is significantly lower that the cost per rural unit connected to mains, group scheme or well. I had to sink my own well in Donegal and understood this basic principle.
Irish Water was just a privatization vehicle for friends of the traitors party FG. Had it been successful, we would have had another eircom (500,000 homes with no broadband in 2018 ffs) disaster. Irish Water would NOT have solved any problems, quite the opposite actually!
@Ciaran: “Your simply an all round genius.”
Well, I do know the correct usage of the word ‘you’re’, which is a good start.
@Brian Cunningham: Meters are for measuring consumption whereas ultrasonic water detection equipment is for detecting leaks.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: you alright hun?
@The Risen: I’m so glad you’re there to show all of us the error of our ways
@MK76: Wouldnt a DAC (designated activity company)company uses assets as “leverage”?
@Pat Mangan: You are talking sh..e
@Ciaran: “I’m so glad you’re there to show all of us the error of our ways”
It’s part of the service I provide Ciaran. It’s heartwarming to see that you have taken my comment on board and are now using the word correctly.
No need to thank me, just pay it forward x
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Its motor tax Sean we all pay motor tax so we can drive on public roads, hence motor tax is sold partly the under pretence it shall be used the for upkeep of infrastructure such as roads.
@Pat Mangan: Agree entirely! They should never have listened to all the ignorant short sighted bullies and continued to collect the charges!
@Pat Mangan: Do you pay incoe tax, then you pay for your water or does that point not make sense. Tax was raised by 1% to do away with rates.
Phil Hogan will be around the city each night to turn everybodies water down to a trickle.
@Brendan Hughes: he will be too busy keeping his staff cuddled for that the babe magnet…
Can we not have reduced pressure between 7am and 7pm instead? The vast majority of people will be in work anyway. You can turn my water off entirely for those hours.
@Guy Incognito: And after that you can beg on your knees from your Irish Water masters to give you a cup of water to drink.
So if you work a normal day and are in the rush hour(s) before 7.00am and seldom home before 7.00pm, you’ll never see “normal” water pressure?
The “time delay” on the dishwasher and washing machine will be getting a lot of use..
@David Willis:
“So if you work a normal day and are in the rush hour(s) before 7.00am and seldom home before 7.00pm, you’ll never see “normal” water pressure?”
and if IW ( incredibly wasteful) get their way , you will never see a wage packet in surplus again , as little as you get now with all fianna gaels coalition extra taxes. .
@David Willis: that was my point too.
@Roy Dowling: I can imagine what party you hail from Royston……. idiot! Why don’t you keep your class claptrap to yourself!
@Niall Binéad: Dowling is the one sponging off the state in his Irish Water job for the good boys who bend over.
Irish Water pressure is being steadily applied. Pay up or else. Whoever controls the water supply controls the country.
@Patricia McCarthy: Irish Waters think water comes from water meters, new cars or conSULTANS reports – but not from the sky !!
@cortisola: The time for talking is ended. 5 million is being used by one SCUT to get his picture in the paper every day. The time for talking is up now. The SCUTs must hand back the money they have robbed from the Irish people and get out while they are still able!
@Patricia McCarthy: When you take a cold look at this announcement of water being curtailed “for the foreseeable future” you realise how sinister a move this is.
@Dave Doyle: I do Dave. Its time someone put the brakes on the runaway Trough that is Irish Water. And it is time for the people that are expected to keep putting money in the Trough to stop making excuses for their inaction in the face of such perfidy. The Trough must be closed and the pigs hunted out.
Can’t pay, won’t pay and now can’t drink or wash. What’s Paul Murphy’s solution to that, a “peaceful protest”?
@No One: Paul Murphy isn’t the only one with solutions. There are lots of people out there who will not be blackmailed into paying a gang of SCUTs for water that is already being paid for by general taxation.
@Patricia McCarthy: It is NOT being paid for because we are not paying enough to pay for it. Just because somebody says ‘taxation will pay’ it doesn’t mean taxation can actually afford.
@Patricia McCarthy: As Sean pointed out we are paying out of general taxation but there has to be a huge increase in expenditure to bring our infrastructure up to speed. That means that everyone has to contribute as everyone needs water. Admittedly FG made a dogs bollox of the whole Irish Water fiasco but the truth is that we need something like IW to manage our water system in a dedicated manner. A levy of €1 per person per week over a period of time would have been a better way to have gone about things and the money could be taken at source through Social Welfare or Tax.
As for the Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay crowd. My parents had to pay €7000 to sink a well because there are no water pipes anyway near them and it would have cost many multiples of that for the council to have laid down pipes. They also spent another €5000 upgrading their old septic tank again because of no sewage pipes nearby. They also spent about €5-700 per year to maintain both systems and yet people in urban areas were the ones who were creating havoc over something they don’t have to fork out for every year and certainly not on the scale of rural dwellers.
One of the reasons that water protesters annoyed the shite out of me was apart from wasting police time and calling for ambulances for imaginary injuries they were also a bunch of hypocrites. I used to deliver to a shop on the northside of Cork and one day saw a woman buy 2 bottles of Fiji mineral water at € 2.50/50cl a pop. She then walked across the road into her house that proudly displayed a big sign saying “Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay. Cork says No to water charges” Go figure.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: The SCUTs can pay for it. 5 million is being used by one SCUT to get his picture in the paper every day. The time for talking is up now. SCUTs hand back the money you have robbed from the Irish people and get out while you are still able!
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Then you must know the cost of supplying an average household with water to make a statement like that.
So tell us the figures and back them up with a reliable source.
@No One: Wow.someone spent a fiver on mineral water….Go figure
@No One: Makes a change from former Taoiseach’s 2 pints man story!
@Patricia McCarthy: Clearly it wasn’t adequately paid for from taxation, given the state of the system 40 years after the abolition of water rates. So the choice is increase taxes or cut funding to health, social welfare or some other department.
Also, had Irish Water been allowed to complete the metering programme, right now it would be a lot easier to identify leaks, and selfish antisocial tap-running behaviour would bw identifiable and have a cost to the user.
@Tim Delaney: No. That isn’t the choice. The choice is to make all politicians and ex county council managers to account for their neglect and waste for the past decades and to reimburse the country from their own pockets. Send in CAB. They have plenty of money hidden in overseas bank accounts. Start the rollcall now. Make them pay up.
@Tim Delaney: Ultrasonic leak detection equipment detects leaks, meters measure consumption not leaks.
@Tim Delaney: Yeah .. better to cut health – ( can it be cut and further under FG ? ) than to expect those vulture funds or FDI actually pay anything close to 12.5%. Fuc” the sick and old – the new motto of FG.
@No One:Paul Murphy is one of our better citizens and you should be given him praise.
@Tim Delaney: But tim have you not heard the country is in full recovery and fg have billions more in tax, why tax us more? Or is it more porkies from the blueshirts.
Flooding and Water Shortages seems reasonable.. not
@DeFonz:
Maybe they should qualify that there is a shortage of ‘clean water’. Flooding results in the water supply becoming contaminated.
@DeFonz: Big difference between water shortage and drinkable clean water.
@DeFonz: You idiot, I bet you think potable water falls from the sky
@Platypus Parcel: If we have water but it is not drinkable, that means it is not shortage but infrastructure issue. Wonder if we invest money wasted on meters into pumps and filters there would be any problems now?
@Platypus Parcel: he probably thinks that water flows from his taps as he expects it to through his taxes. And rightly so. When you are an adult you will realise.
No matter how vehemently opposed to water charges you are, nobody has the right to.leave taps constantly running during a cold snap. This is a disgraceful wanton waste of a precious natural resource, and anyone who does so should be fined, or at the very least made pay for it.
@Aging Lothario: There are water meters in every house in the country. There should be no difficulty finding out who the wasters are. I am vehemently opposed to water charges for two reasons. (1) Water is freely given to us by God and no one can charge for a God given resource. (2) because of the way the criminally corrupt gurriers run this country, water charges would affect low income people most. That does not mean that I want to let wanton wasters ruin things for everyone else.
@Aging Lothario: very few people left taps on. This is a distraction from the scam.
@Ronan Sexton: How on earth can you tell whether or not people left their taps on?
@Ronan Sexton: Really Ronan, and how do you know this? Fact of the matter is that be it during a cold spell or one of our rare hot spells, nobody has the right to waste water, and those who do waste it should pay for it. We should all be entitled to a proper water allowance per household, go over that and then you should pay.
@Patricia McCarthy: you go on out and drink the rain water or water from rivers and lakes so. You aren’t paying for the water, you’re paying for the treatment of that water to make it safe!
@Patricia McCarthy: What a moron
Water restriction in the wettest country in Europe….you couldn’t make it up
@Gus Sheridan: Not a drop of water in the tap in south Dublin, thought it was reduced pressure they were telling us but no, water is turned off entirely and indefinitely , looney country, every time it snows the water is turned off.
Folks it over, IW was is holed below the water line … especially when stories like this broke. Well done Catherine and Paul …
Catherine Murphy raised her concerns about GMC Sierra’s water meter contract, in the Dáil, asking how could GMC Sierra be awarded a contract [by former Environment Minister Phil Hogan] for water meters even though it didn’t legally come into existence until July 15, 2013, 15 days after the closing date for bids.
@Ian Kavanagh: cronyism, corruption etc etc.
FG have still not offered a referendum! Privatization is still in play.
My water supply is restricted every single night and has been for as long as I can remember
@Nick Allen: That’s one of the side effects of being a FG floozy.
Can you be clear about what window they actually said the restrictions will apply to? In one paragraph you state “For this reason he said that pressure will be restricted in the greater Dublin area between 7pm and 7am.” but in a subsequent section formatted as if it were a direct quote, you say it will be restricted in the opposite 12 hour window: “But it will also require us to put on restrictions and we believe that it will be necessary for us to restrict pressure from 7am to 7pm for the foreseeable future.” Pretty to have such contradictory content.
@Paddy Walsh: “Pretty shoddy” should be the start of the last sentence.
more snow than we can shake a stick at and we end up with water shortages. wtf!
@Ro Molloy: Water shortage isn’t the problem – clean drinkable water is.
@B9xiRspG: Water isn’t the problem. Clean decent people who can run the country without robbing it is the problem. One SCUT is getting 5 million to have his picture in the paper every day. Enough is enough.
@Patricia McCarthy: which scut do you refer to?
@Gus Sheridan: Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Are you from SCUT? What scut do you think I am referring to?
@Patricia McCarthy: Who is getting 5 million to have their picture in the paper? Is it Kim Kardashian?
@Pat Bateman: Is this another press release from SCUT. Strategic Communication Unit Troll, meets with the Kardashians?
Funding problem could be solved overnight. Make Irish Water a public utility and get Revenue to gather the charge like property tax. Can’t cos IMF insists it be private and govt agrees. A better alternative would be to renegotiate the bank debt but they’re afraid of the ECB. Fear and ideology are precluding simple solutions.
@Rory Mc Closkey:
“Fear and ideology are precluding simple solutions.”
change that too ” ineptitude and cronyism are etc “
@Rory Mc Closkey:
Note how we haven’t been offered a referendum on the ownership of our water supply?
The privatisation plan is still in play! IMHO only a traitors party would allow that to happen.
I wish people would cop on and realize that we badly need investment in water infrastructure and the money supposedly collected through other tax comes nowhere near to being enough to fix the problem. The whingers will be the ones complaining in a few years when there are constant issues with the water supply. Yes they went about it the wrong way but that doesn’t negate the fact that investment is needed.
This is a good read for anyone who likes to complain about paying twice http://economic-incentives.blogspot.ie/2015/03/paying-twice-for-water-not-really.html
@Sam Harms: still waiting for the referendum on the ownership of our water supply.
Why are we still waiting? Why?
@Sam Harms: Is that so Sam Harms .. IW was not going to fix anything, A Super Quango designed form start to fleece the people of Ireland.
So if the likes of you had stopped the quango IW at the start instead of using the defacto “the wont pay for anything mantra” and put effort into making a proper Utility or just properly fund the Councils or at least give them back the money they took in in rates.
Now look up how John Tierney and the top people in RPS consultants got the big jobs in Irish Water and really see where 3 billion has been wasted, that 3 billion would have been better off given to the Councils rather that a fleet of Audis, huge salaries, gyms and Bunuses FFS ..
@Sam Harms: 1)Great respect for Seamus even though I don’t agree with everything he says.I think he forgot to mention in that blog that Local Government Funds (LGFs) were set up in 1999 and motor tax directly directed to them re eg water services
LAs had around 6 different sources of income: goods&services,rates,specific state grants,community fund, environment fund and LGFs so LGFs were just one source of income.(I think it’s also called special central fund)
In 2016 59.7% of LGF income was from motor tax,(€1b+)24.3% LPT(€437m)just 15.9% from Exchequer(€286.6m) totaling €1.79B)
2)Maude Barlow who is the world’s leading expert on water and sanitation provision stated that “The Irish system of paying for water and sanitation services through progressive taxation and non domestic user fees is an exemplary model of fair equitable and sustainable service delivery for the entire world”
@Sam Harms: Thank you for speaking sense.
Meath and Kildare are no more. Enjoy being part of the GDA and urban sprawl…
Look this is getting boring at this stage. The simple solution if you believe in democracy is a referendum on the ownership of our water. If the government don’t agree with this then they are anti democratic. No amount of waffling from the schills on here will change this.
@Derek Poutch: only it requires no understanding of referendums
Irish waters Grant said “it will involve pressure management during the day where we can, it will involve a lot of additional crews on the ground finding and repairing leaks.”
I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT THE TIME TO DO PRESSURE TESTING ON THE SYSTEM WOULD BE AT NIGHT when usage is at its lowest . very hard to measure as they do not know how many or how few are using water during the day. it would make more sense to put in in line meters at critical junctions than individual water meters as the main leaks are not between footpaths and houses but in main pipes.
@mur: ironically, they cannot use the water meters to locate the “hundreds” of smaller leaks as they are not connected. Billions spent on rubbish, and no way to detect if it’s a leak or a tap left on.
@mur: Ah the Great Gerry Grant, who was CEO of RPS Consultants who were paid over 30 million on the Poolbeg Incinerator Project until the EU stepped in and stopped the Contract between Dublin City Council and RPS due to illegalities !!!! and then he and the Propaganda Queen Elizabeth Arnett both move from RPS Consultants to Irish Water FFS .. Gerry took Head of Asset Managemmet and Liz got he preferred Propaganda role, and if IW closes will prob move on the next gravy train Leo’s spin unit .. How did these get top jobs in IW after being involved in irregular activities in the previous company ???
@Irish Bob: The whole lot of them are criminals bent on the destruction of this country. They are afraid the IMF will come knocking at their own doors, if they cannot force the Irish people to pay their debts.
Could there be a bit of skulduggery going on here a trick being played by the quangos to get more cash from what they take to be fools.
I say any water that is being lost is because of burst badly fitted water meters.
Not to mention the millions of damage to every footpath and road in the country that were ripped apart by the Irish Water cartel for no good reason.
Give control of our water back to the councils and the people , taxpayers.
Our water pressure has been “restricted”. Which basically means zero water coming out of the taps. Would have been nice to have a bit more notice, so we could stock up. We have a baby to feed, and you can’t use bottled water to make their bottles with. We are screwed if we run out of what little we have left (in the kettle, etc).
What? Our crappy infrastructure that needs €5bn in ADDITIONAL funding, along with the moronic behaviour of those who left their taps running, is putting the delivery of clean water in danger?
Who knew?
@MK76: agree about people who left water on should cop on. But was told most water lost through burst pipes….would also be interesting to see how many connections to water meters failed during this period
@MK76: Won’t they be paying for “excessive water usage”?
@Nuala Mc Namara: Unlikey, given its the only issue that exercises the opposition in this country.
@MK76: You want to get on the same page as your fraperoom colleague Nick Allen. He claims it will cost 23 billion.
You are both pulling figures from where David Drumm pulled his figures from.
@Dan: “would also be interesting to see how many connections to water meters failed during this period”
water meters are supposed to be gone over their “best by” date and will need replacing . what are needed are inline mains meters at critical junctions on water system .
several years ago I had a tiny leak at outdoor stopcock and reported it .
3 weeks later out came a jcb , a pneumatic drill , 40 tonne lorry and half a dozen men . new stopcock and six inches of pipe , hole filled in with tarmac and cordoned off . next day 4 men , 20 tonne lorry , couple buckets of cement , hole covered over and on asking if a meter was installed ,told ” it was not their job that another crew would install that and would have to dig out the cement etc to install meter ”
imagine the cost of all that under irish waters regime . all external pipes to houses should be upgraded prior to charges coming in. we had a scenario where meters were just added to old /very old pipework and responsibility left to the homeowner while d o b would cream off charges for meters
@MK76: mmm ….2/3 voters is a sizable opposition!
@Dan: dont say that .. it wouldn’t suit MK76 narrative. He’ll have you labelled anti-Semitic for speaking out against the FG spin.
@MK76: if only FG weren’t intent on privatising the IRISH PEOPLES water supply, then maybe we’d have functioning meters in the ground.
Can you have a shout around the strat com’s room to see if anyone knows WHEN we are getting vthat referendum on the ownership of our water supply?
@MK76: Ahhhhhhhhhhhh did ya manage to get into work today ? was not much out of ya the last few days, were ye all in the Spin unit sent home because of the snow.
Reduce the pressure my a##e ! Water gone completely in East Wall now….
The neglect of our water system for decades by successive inept governments has led us to this inevitable point! Will this be a restricted water supply or a full on knocking off of our water supply for 12 hours? Is this not also a good opportunity for Irish waters “everybody needs to pay for water through metering” call, amongst others! Coincidental or what!
Same crap from FF FG LIEBOUR shills..
IW will not be supported now or in the future.. Get over it..
@Willy Malone: ahem to that, only a party of traitors would allow a nations water supply to fall into private hands.
Amen, to say that….
Hope people now appreciate the folly the water charges campaign was. That populist campaign was akin to an Irish brexit. It was the most idiotic and misdirected use of decent people’s efforts by populist politicians only interested in their own advancement.
@Broadoak: Maybe you could provide us some details of politicians that are not only interested in their own advancement ? I do remember FG jumping up and down like dogs in heat while in opposition … they were more than willing to use decent people when it suited them – Little old Leo and his ‘not another red cent’ rant, was very popular on the day – quite an idiotic and misdirected quote at the time.
@Broadoak: bs.
Irish Water was just a privatization vehicle for friends of the traitors party FG. Had it been successful, we would have had another eircom (500,000 homes with no broadband in 2018 ffs) disaster. Irish Water would NOT have solved any problems, quite the opposite actually!
@Broadoak: Read that Maynooth Uni research into water protests& you might be better informed!
Imagine still thinking politicians directed the massive water protests!
@Broadoak: What are you talking about ? If people hadn’t protested, IW would have been able to do what it likes and raise prices to pay for their fleet of audi’s, inflated salaries and bonuses and we would still have issues with water. IW is a super quango period
@Irish Bob: Irish Water is a bottomless well for the criminal establishment in Ireland. The Strategic Communication Unit Trolls, (SCUT) have not yet issued a communication on the blackmail tactics being used by Irish Water against the Irish people.
@Patricia McCarthy: don’t question the SCUT .. you will be labelled anti-Semitic by some of the FG crew on this forum.
@Ian Kavanagh: Of course politicians are interested in their own advancement, but in the water charges a lot of people’s justifiable anger at injustice by banks, politicians and other vested interested coalesced into what I feel was the wrong issue. We need to protect the water infrastructure for future generations. We should have given the establishment a bloody nose over the bailout, the homeless crisis or any other issue. An attack on our environment is not the way, as a result I would not vote for any of the so called left leaning parties.
@Broadoak: So its ok for politicians to politicians to be interested in their own advancement … as long as their principals align with yours.
That OK then, I’m all for it, but get of your high horse by stating ‘ …. populist politicians only interested in their own advancement. ‘ only to acknowledge they all do it !!!!!
@Broadoak: AS for .. We should have given the establishment a bloody nose over the bailout, the homeless crisis or any other issue ..
I’m assuming as you wont vote for the so called left leaning parties, you’ll continue with FFG then ..as they clearly are doing such a great job on the items you called out.
thoughtless people running taps as usual
@DJ François: Turn the tap off then you blithering idiot. Irish Water are holding the country to Ransom by withholding water, and all you can say is thoughtless people are running taps. God give me patience.
@DJ François: fg people ruining the country as usual.
have your say