Sir, – "Hard cases make bad laws" goes the old legal maxim. In the Irish Water situation, unusually, the "hard case" seeking the court's relief is the creditor, not the debtor. The relief now proposed by the Government is to enact legislation that would place the debt-collecting powers of one State utility corporation on the same advantageous footing as those of the Revenue Commissioners ("Irish Water may deduct unpaid bills from wages and welfare", March 23rd).
Quite apart from the predictable copycat demands of other State utility bodies to enjoy the same commercial advantage in cash-flow management, there are other implications.
Take the situation whereby non-State-owned corporations or private limited companies (including Irish subsidiaries of multinational conglomerates), supply services or goods to the same customers. Might not they challenge the exclusivity of this creditor’s business advantage as a form of indirect State aid? And should what’s sauce for the goose be sauce for the gander? Should not the self-employed, whether engaged in partnerships or as sole traders in the professions, trades and crafts, share the same advantages as the big boys in pursuing debtors? And then, begorrah, we’d hardly need the courts at all! – Yours, etc,
FRANK GOLDEN,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – Jim O'Sullivan correctly points out the absurdity of Irish Water's advertising campaign (March 25th). Taxpayers' money, as with Ireland's water supply, is a limited resource. Nevertheless, Irish Water has dubiously chosen to dispense this fiscal resource into consultants' expenses, staff bonuses and now a media campaign. How do such measures rebuild the water supply infrastructure? Cruelly and ironically, our money is another resource being lost down the drain. – Yours, etc,
DAN DONOVAN ,
Dungarvan,
Co Waterford.
Sir, – Am I the only person in Ireland who is totally disgusted by the antics of “protesters” and politicians determined to avoid water charges? Nobody likes to pay. These people want to be able to use or waste as much water as they like, so long as someone else pays for it. That is why they attempt to block the installation of meters. That, to my mind, is theft.
Water charges are not taxes. Pure water is a commodity, the same as electricity or fuel. It costs money to get to the taps and to dispose of as waste. It should be metered just like electricity or gas. If you choose not to pay for those commodities without due cause, you get cut off.
Blaring out “power to the people” through 120 decibels of amplifiers may pump up the spirits of the mob, but it won’t deliver a litre to Leitrim, maintain the mains of Maynooth or sanitise the sewers of Santry.
Those supposed politicians who support this campaign of mob rule do a great disservice to the country. How can they expect people to respect them if they ever do get into power when they urge us now to disregard democratic government? Are we to give way to intimidation and mob rule? – Yours, etc,
D LEONARD,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.