Sir, – Do we detect a glimpse of clear water between the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste? – Yours, etc,
JACK O’CONNELL,
Ballydehob, Co Cork.
A chara, – Socialist Party: we won’t pay. Fine Gael: we will pay. Sinn Féin: we might pay. Fianna Fáil: we will pay but not now. Labour Party: we will make up a number and pay that. – Is mise,
LOMAN Ó LOINGSIGH,
Dublin 24.
Sir, – I predict a return to the parish pumps, which would be a great benefit to candidates in elections as they would be guaranteed an audience without having to go house to house. Privatisation? No thanks. – Yours, etc,
NIALL HAYDEN,
Dundalk,
Co Louth.
Sir, – I can understand how people in Ireland are upset at the prospect of employees of a public utility receiving bonuses. At the same time they should realise that Ireland is the only country in the OECD where the end user does not pay directly for water services.
In New York state, where my wife and I live, we pay the equivalent of €300 annually for water and sewage taxes. This is comparable to the €278 which a two-adult household using 87,000 litres per year would pay under the proposed new water service charge system. There are additional reductions for lower-income families.
Since joining the EU, Ireland has made considerable progress in upgrading the infrastructure for water and wastewater treatment and distribution. However, there is still a need for additional modernisation of the system. In March 2007 there was an outbreak of the parasitic disease cryptosporidiosis in Galway which was traced to the public water supply. This is a very insidious intestinal infection which in the city of Milwaukee in 1993 was responsible for illness in approximately 400,000 people and it is believed that it may have caused around 100 deaths of people with suppressed immune systems. There is also a major problem of leakage in parts of the Irish water distribution system which could account for up to 41 per cent loss from the point of distribution to the point of use.
In the world we all live in today, there is no such thing as a free lunch. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK O’KEEFE,
New York.
Sir, – If the stated aim is conservation of an expensive and finite resource, the solution is simple. Grant every citizen a very generous water allowance and make the profligate pay for the balance they use. When an average consumption model for Irish households can be determined the allowances may, over time, be amended. A capped charge is inequitable. Where is the reward in being environmentally responsible if there is no penalty for waste? – Yours, etc,
CAROLINE TINDAL,
Kilcoole, Co Wicklow.
Sir , – If the Government continues to reduce the amount people have to pay for their water and continues to extend out the period when a flat charge will apply, there is every likelihood that there will be insufficient money accrued to pay the staff at Irish Water their bonuses, never mind funding the required improvements to the infrastructure and fixing of the leaks. This is a very worrying development and I respectfully suggest that consultants be engaged to examine the problem. – Yours, etc,
HUGH PIERCE,
Celbridge, Co Kildare.
Sir, – How is it possible for this Government to be so wilfully heedless? The objections to water charges are threefold: the likelihood of water as a public resource being privatised in the future; the lack of transparency regarding charges, including repair costs; and the bonus culture of entitlement evidenced by Irish Water. Last year the Government foostered, fumbled and obfuscated on the issue of property tax and learned nothing from the experience.
It is unlikely that those who protest so vigorously over this issue will be palmed off with cheap promises of temporary lower charges, which are no sooner uttered by Government than they are disputed from those same sources. Nor with the “I’m worth it” culture. Nor with empty assurances that privatisation is prohibited by legislation since the electorate is all too aware of just how quickly new legislation can be railroaded through the Dáil when it suits.
The pent-up anger people feel from being the whipping boy of the recent economic crisis is now being brought to bear on this one issue and our political leaders would do well to pay heed. The “do as you’re told while we do as we like” politics exhibited time and again by this Government may well be its undoing. – Yours, etc,
PATRICIA MULKEEN,
Sligo.
Sir, – If politicians don’t pay their water charges, how are they going to wash their hands of this mess they got us into? – Yours, etc,
KEVIN DEVITTE,
Westport,
Co Mayo.
Sir, – The late great writer and columnist John Healy used to characterise Irish political leadership as being of the “here goes the mob; I am their leader, therefore I must follow” kind. Joan Burton is continuing in a long tradition. – Yours, etc,
PADDY CORLEY,
Ennis, Co Clare.
A chara, – Does the Government have any idea of the misery it is causing with all this uncertainty over what people are going to have to pay for water, particularly among the elderly?
Simple compassion demands that this stops now. Our elected leaders need to do their jobs and tell us at once what our water charges are going to be; or, if that is as difficult as their actions make it out to be, draw a line under the thing and say that the whole issue of paying for water is being set to one side until it is in a position to do so with clarity and authority. The current farce whereby we’re told different amounts by different sources day after day is cruel and unnecessary and must end. – Is mise,
Rev PATRICK G BURKE,
Castlecomer,
Co Kilkenny.