Irish Water and consultancy fees

Sir, – Why the uproar when Irish Water consultancy fees were announced (Front Page, January 10th)? This company was started from scratch and was delivered within a year. There would probably have been financial penalties imposed on the private companies if deadlines were not met. If it were left to the relevant public sector bodies, would the Government be able to impose such fines? Would they have completed the task in a year? Better that private companies were involved so that an efficient organisation could be created. Who knows what inefficient organisation, with long-term increased cost to the taxpayer, would have resulted instead? – Yours, etc,

ORLA GILHOOLY,

Dollymount Park,

Clontarf, Co Dublin.