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CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF Ervia, Michael McNicholas has defended Irish Water’s €70 million spend on consultants, insisting they were “international experts”.
Speaking before the Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services, he said there is “a perception out there” that money was squandered on consultants, adding: “That is absolutely not the case.”
McNicholas said the “international experts” were integral to the establishment of Irish Water. The Ervia boss said the money was spent on software and computer system experts needed to set up the national utility.
He said the setup of Irish Water cost €100 million less than any other utility in other countries.
No one has done this.
So no, we did not waste €70 million on consultants.
In 2014, there was public outcry when it was revealed how much was being paid on consultants.
In its written submission to the Environment committee at the time, it was disclosed that computer giant IBM would receive €44.8 million, Accenture would get €17.2 million, Ernst & Young would received €4.6 million and KPMG would get €2.2 million.
Another €13.3 million went to 18 other contractors who were procured “to support the work” of the major providers.
Nearly €4 million was spent on the procurement of legal services with €970,000 being spent with McCann Fitzgerald and €2.9 million with A&L Goodbody.
“We delivered at the end of the day a national utility that is a national asset,” said McNicholas.
Cost of sending bills
The committee also heard that Irish Water spends €25 million a year on billing.
Irish Water spends €25 million on the process of sending the bills, while €13 million is spent on the contact centre. €2 million is spent on staff costs.
Energy Commissioner Paul McGowan told the committee yesterday that he did not “boldly state water metering should be abandoned” in its submission to the committee.
McGowan said the metering project should be “parked” for the time being, as their were other capital projects Irish Water should prioritise.
Irish Water said there was a lot of work needed to improve Ireland’s water infrastructure.
McNicholas said it wanted to get rid of all the cast iron and asbestos pipes, as well as deal with the sewers that have been in place since the 19th Century, which he claims are ready to collapse.
The committee was told wastewater treatment plants are under immense pressure, resulting in raw sewage being pumped into the water in 44 locations.
Read: Regulator denies saying water metering programme should be abandoned>Read: Water meters are not the new e-voting machines – they cost us a lot more>
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Wait for it ……………any second now we will set up an enquiry into the money wasted by IW ……….which will make another load of people rich, waste more money and the conclusion……….mistakes were made lessons were learned we shall not make the same mistakes again.
Skip on a year – Ireland sets up Uisce Eire to look into water issues- the country we live in
Finished… Go away and die IW…
If they gave 70 mil at the start i could have saved them billions by telling them to fix the system they have first before trying to con the people with super quango thats not needed.
@D H: Not to mention the leaking meters which are creating lovely little ice slides for the elderly to go flying on this morning.
Some people might wonder, quite legitimately in this commenter’s humble opinion, why an initial plan to clone the roughly analogous systems at Bord Gais was unceremoniously abandoned and the decision taken to set up the new utility from largely scratch.
Would the initial plan not have been a tremendous cost saving?
So with combined experience with all county councils that worked with water treatment & water supply of about 800 year’s and probably slot more. This so called irish water had to go and get outside consultation in how to look after the existing water system. This stinks, it’s yet another quango, money goes in bull plop comes out.
@simon o flaherty:
But what would local yokels know when you could get international experts to tell you what you want to hear and will be out of the country after and bound by confidentiality agreements so thats a winner for the leeches running irish water.
The only way we will get the truth around the plans in Irish water is if the fiannas are voted out next time round.
Noonans and Kennys legacy is the waste and mess that is Irish water. Their reeling in the years moments will be a split nation fighting against a disjointed government that lost touch with the nation.
The things the country could have done with the money that was burned on Irish water.
@brian boru: Noonan, the man who chased dying women through the courts and invited vulture funds to Ireland to rape and pillage?
Or Kenny, a TD without a single piece of legislation to his name after 45 years in Dail Eireann?
@The Wolf: “Their reeling in the years moments will be a split nation fighting against a disjointed government that lost touch with the nation.”
You could be talking about Fianna Fail’s 16 years in government previous to Kenny,Noonan & Co. in that sentence.
The funny thing is since they changed our pipes the water tastes like pee before the water was beautiful untouched .They tore up our roads in our Estate and just patched them up which will lift in a few years time. They spent money like it was confetti the first few years thinking that everyone will pay for the water but delighted that the public had the balls to stand up to them.
If your water really tastes like pee then you would be better off informing IW about the problem rather than the comment-readers on TheJournal
Denito do you really think I would get someone from Irish water to come and check my water i don’t think so if they did I would be the first in the County .
Then why did Phil Hogan avoid addressing the euro 70,000,000 and why did his senior civil servant play word games about his knowledge (or lack of) in front of an Oireachtas Committee?
We didn’t waste 70mil,we just made some people very rich from just opening their mouths ….
Well they were some so called ” experts” 70 mill & they made a complete balls of it! Seriously is this all they got after spending that amount of money , what a waste of resources that could have sorted out so many leaks! No to mention the other billion or so plus that has been wasted!
@Colette Kearns: No I have to comment on this, those experts did not make a balls of it, we made an absolute balls of it, collectively, inept politicians with no backbone, terrible communications about the utility, and dare I say it, us, the public, we all made a balls of it.Those experts are laughing at us thinking we’re a bunch of muppets.
This has all just been kicked down the road, it will pop up again in the future. Now that we have resigned ourselves to paying for water services through general taxation, we have allowed the waters to remain muddy and stagnate for a while. Now that bills are not being sent out to people anymore, nobody gives a damn, but this issue is not gone away.
I wonder how much ESB, Bord Gas, banks etc spent to set up computer softwear a national utility so they could enter our personal details in to a spread sheet. 25 mil a year to send out bills. Who were they sending them to. Go away get a life. Money would have been better spent if they had repaired the pipes that were there. In the next estate there is a water leak since before christmas. The water is flowing down the road back into the 2 drains. Has been reported but no one has come out to fix it yet. I supose the residents assocation must get in consultants to tell them who to contact to get it fixed.
I’ve worked on an IT project for a company with 900 employees on seven sites that cost €32m. The spend on setting up the IT systems for Irish Water was not exorbitant.
@Denito: It was when you consider that an almost identical billing system was available for the government to duplicate from Bord Gais.
Bord Gais, of course, also the people who told the government that there was no need to blow half a billion euros installing water meters.
I wonder who cashed in on the decision to ignore that advice????
@For Connolly: The Malteser through Siteserv?
You did not only waste it ,you publicly dug holes and fired our tax euro’s into them . May 2017 see Irish water’s death and the Irish water ship is sunk for good . We will never pay
Yes you will, whether it’s through charges or general taxation
It’s this disgusting waste of hundreds of millions and then the fact every government will then try an recoup this waste and scrape every penny off our services and the vulnerable or worthwhile areas/causes that makes me fume. Try not cutting hospital beds first but instead don’t pour multiple millions down the drain on idiotic half baked ideas. How much good could those millions wasted have achieved for worthy causes/ areas.
No way we won’t pay
Experts??? Some of those names are far too familiar thanks to their involvement in the banking crash when they were the auditors!!
It’s so called experts that have destroyed this country
Time to being in the clowns!
@Anne Kerins: Nope. Its government clowns paying for experts, then go ahead and ignore their advice or interpret it in their own way.
Experts and consultants can be very useful, but only when you ask the right questions and do as they say. Our government did neither.
A national asset he calls it. Someone needs to help him out with the definition of asset because Irish Water is certainly not one.
Yes you did
As in waste €70m!!!
# waste €70m!
IrishWater needs to be wound up immediately.
McNicholas is part of the problem and should pay for his waste of our money
It’s an absolute disgrace, we had a system that worked, we had very good people doing a very good job delivering our water.
Yes the system is ancient and needed upgrading to prevent loss and improve effiency but we did not need to re invent the wheel.
The council staff who had the knowledge have been severely negatively impacted with all this and the figures released have been completely miss represented time and time again.
It’s time people stared calling for the heads of government over this.
It makes ash for cash look like a game with Monopoly money.
Shame on all those involved.
The county councils were dramatically overstaffed by several thousand.
@ mick Jenkins
That’s completely wrong, The water section was under staffed and under funded.
@Stephen Maher: But the water system did not work…. the pipes need replacing, constant boil notices, not enough water for dublins growth, etc.
In the end, we NEED water meters. They can help pinpoint leaks (when installed properly). And if someone never turned off his water taps, he pays the same for water as you do, only right if he payed more.
However, our government did it all wrong. Tried to charge people too soon, hired absolute clowns for the job and sank more money into than it should have needed in the first place. And they did not pass laws which would never let irish water be privatised.
In essence, they made a fool of themselves doing something that should have been as simple as a routine…
@ Andy K
I take your point on conservation and the user pays etc.
However, the figures for leakage where available long before this household metering system began.
This cockup has nothing to do with conservation or making the user pay , its simply a tool to turn our water system into a saleable asset for private investors.
The European norm for water leakage is about 30% and Ireland was at %40% before IW and I’d say if they published the actual figures now it’s still roughly the same
IW massaged their figures to say we had a bigger problem than we actually had so it was easier for them to say they made great gains since IW was setup, but the fact remains that our council water departments were doing a very good job despite the lack of funding.
I’m 39 have lived in south Dublin all my life, I can’t remember ever turning the tap on and not being able to drink water from it.
So the council have been able to provide water.
Despite the lack of investment.
Yes the system needs updating, yes the councils should collaborate yes we need people to conserve and harvest etc etc but we never needed IW or it’s cronies and at a time when the country was in the grips of recession after bailing banks the money spent here could have gone a long way to helping the situation.
Just look at the state of our country , these political parasites need to be held accountable.
And the public need to use their vote wisely at the next election.
@Stephen Maher: How come then the failed water quango itself states that it is overstaffed by 2,500 then?
There’s the problem, all IW did was to create another layer of bureaucracy.
FG slashed funding to LA’s in order to justify setting up the IW quango.
It’s been an utter disaster from day one.
@Andy K: District metering would have located over 90% of the leaks in the system.
I daresay that after FG’s cronies butchered their meter installations, there’s more leaks now than ever.
We use an average of 80 litres per person, per day, in Ireland, well below the EU average.
Metering was and is a scam, thankfully 800,000+ people didn’t fall for it.
@the wolf
IW states it’s over staffed but we couldn’t believe any other figures they publish so I’m not sure I’d be falling for it.
The system still needs a massive overhaul and upgrade so , It may or may not be over staffed.
It wouldn’t be hard to make jobs redundant while your paying millions on external consultants , perhaps it’s those jobs they speak of.
The whole thing is fubar.
@Andy K: “And if someone never turned off his water taps, he pays the same for water as you do, only right if he payed more.”
Straight from the blueshirts play book on Irish Water. If Irish Water was set up for legitimate reasons why do the people that support it feel the need to always make these spurious claims?
Andy K are you sure you’re not Enda K?
@The Wolf: Thats 800,000 homes not people.
Government make me fume. The majority are against water charges yet they are not being listened too. Think we will have to take over a reservoir and bargain them into giving us taxpayers what we bloody want. After all it worked for Apollo House residents
Anytime any politician,political mouth pieces or Irish water spokesperson comes on speak about the company the just make it worse, let’s talk about waste…. John Tiereny (what did he achieve to justify his wages and payoff) Elizabeth Arnett (great pr job,wages justified?), second hand water meters from Germany (which will be out of date in less than 10 years, the ones that didn’t get removed that is),fleets of audis for executives,free gyms and yoga classes for employees and of course phil hogan Alan Kelly and Enda Kenny to name but a few. Not none highly paid consultant was able to say geez lads I think we’ve made a huge mistake here.
When will they scrap television licenses as well, they are hardly worth more than 50 euro?
Amazing. So by changing the word from “Consultant” to “Expert” we are all to feel so much better for the €100m spent on changing the management of water from the local authority to a centralised quango. Brilliant! It’s easy to see why these guys get paid the salaries they get.
“McNicholas said the “international experts” were integral to the establishment of Irish Water.”
Yes but it’s been a complete failure from the start and if this is what 70 million gets you in consultancy fees then we want a refund. Sadly we have such shite journalists in this country this was allowed go unchecked.
A few hundred million to set up a billing agency that costs 25 million a year to run. They’ll be charging us by the millilitre to turn a profit at this stage. It’s pure hubris at this stage. Wind it up, bury it deep.
They need to look for a refund from the experts.. if that’s was the expertise they provided. It’s was bad.. €25 million for sending out bills that hardly anyone was paying. Another waste.
International experts = consultants. Just because they’re different words doesn’t mean they’re not the same thing.
“I did not have sex with that woman”.
@Rathminder-why was she that bad?
Trickle Trickle …
Trickle Trickle Uncle Phil
Fill my kettle can I Still
Of fine water pissing Down
Bursting banks to flood the Town
Trickle Trickle Uncle Phil
We promise not a drop to Spill
When making coffee or a Cuppa
Brendan Ogle thinks your a Muppa
Trickle Trickle in a Jar
Uncle Phil you went too far
Accusing us of being polluters
Water never made us flutered
Simon Coveney clears his throat
With plenty water to float his Boat
Enjoying the sun on open Sea
While Paddy has to pay to Pee
Trickle Trickle hear the Hiss
Forty percent not hard to Miss
1 million meters in the ground
But still not one leak can be found
Trickle Trickle Motor Tax
Taken for to fund the Jax
Paying once is very Slick
But paying twice takes the Mick
Trickle Trickle water Grant
Greasing palms to stop the Rant
Outstanding bills, pay you Must
Took the soup, get a Crust
Trickle Trickle Fine Gael
One old party up for Sale
Big D wants to privatise
Make an offer, close your eyes ……
-NK62F
Brilliant.
Paying for water is fine.
Water meters are fine.
Maintaining and repairing the network is essential.
iIrish Water’s sole reason for existence however was to privatise our water supple.
Irish Water and Ervia need to be wound up immediately – all its staff made redundant or deployed.
We need a constitutional amendment to ensure that water remains in public ownership (and actually maybe the oil and natural gas sold by FF to the energy companies ought to be renationalised).
At that point we can talk about metering.
I cannot think of three more up-your-nose obnoxious people who were the cheerleaders for Irish Water than, Phil Hogan, Alan Kelly, and the mouthpiece, Elizabeth Arnett. Their bullying antics did it for me…
Ok so let me get this straight…so far 84000 meters installed for 70 million. One day I hope people will get tired of all these liars and will do somehing about the Banana Republic of Ireland
We didn’t need to look overseas for experts.
There are clearly many on this forum who, without any detailed information, pricing breakdown or further research, instinctively can conclude that €70 was a waste of money.
The general public in Ireland are astonishingly good at accurately pricing complex utility establishment projects without needing to know any detail.
70 mil was wasted… There is no need to break down any figures or do further research. They gave 70 mil to experts who ballsed it up rightly
€44m to IBM. That’s an astonishing figure in this day and age when hardware and comms have never been cheaper. €25m on billing! There are about 1.6m households in Ireland. So they spent about €15 per house to issue bills that nobody pays. You honestly couldn’t write it. But sure t’will be grand. It’s only taxpayers’ work. What happened to all the council workers from around the country who were twiddling their thumbs as a result of the consolidated operation? Redeployed, gold plated pay offs? What has Joe Public actually got from this big spend? It would be nice to see the breakdown and, you know, a bit of accountability and transparency on the spend.
How was it ballsed up?
Mick Jenkins. How was it not.
Ah Cmon Mick, either you are Enda Kenny or you have been living with him for the past couple of years.
Oh no maybe your Alan Kelly or Big Phil.
@alphanautica: If it was €70 as you suggested, no one would be complaining, it was €70 million!
They should not have to pay the consultancy fees as their input was useless and didn’t work
Ervia got the contract because they had the experience of setting up a company,that was the reason given,and it would save costs,so this is all lies.
No, ye probably wasted twice that.
Irish Water: ‘We did not waste €70m on consultants’
The money wasn’t wasted and it was 700 million lol.
OK, you know what, we will play ball this time IW. OK, so no more about you wasting €70m on consultants. Now, can you explain why you wasted €70m on international experts?
3 words! YES YOU DID!
When will we hand it over to the IMF for them to sell it to one of their pals?
Gombeen nation will never change,Irish people just dont have it in them to take their country back from the underachievers and shysters running it. It will be the same after the next election and the next and the next.
Waist, invest never to be seen again, whatever
Waste
Does that include the Gardai Water Board bill also?
IW should consider offering the young scientist of the year a job as he seems to know more about computers than their experts. He could save them a fortune & only 16 yrs.
If you notice that nearly all the comments on this page have a load of dislikes each, must be a couple of irish water/failure employees reading this article Ha Ha Ha Ha
Yes you did
You did
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