Free water

Not all that long ago some scientists were saying that we were on the cusp of a new era of such technological wizardry that ‘squanderable energy’ was just around the corner. Sadly more than fifty years later we still haven’t negotiated that bend. Second prize in this pursuit was probably ‘squanderable resources’ made possible by advances in geology and technology which revealed oil and gas and mineral wealth deposits previously unknown. But harvesting these treasures has proven to be far more costly by any metric than anyone predicted. Sadly, or maybe not, Ireland was behind the door when God was distributing this bounty upon the earth. But the prophets tell us that God works in strange ways and the proof is that when it came to the most precious resource of all Ireland was way ahead of the pack. For we are the beneficiaries of ‘squanderable water’ and boy do we squander it. As I write there is a hose pipe ban in operation because we’ve had a dry spring. However in the final months of 2019 there was hardly a day without buckets of rain. The natives would appear entitled to ask where all that water went. The short answer is that it’s gone out to sea but of the rainwater that was collected and subsequently found its way into the piped network system it is admitted that a substantial but unknown amount simply leaks away because the water infrastructure is not fit for purpose. To address this problem a few years ago a new semi state body called Irish Water was established to modernise the whole system. It was envisaged that the new company would get its revenue from water metering charges just like electricity. Trouble was the existing system was funded from general taxation and so the new system would mean charges for something people perceived was always ‘free’. But of course nothing is free and the reality was that water was funded by the people who pay the taxes whereas this new system proposed to get all users to pay. This caused a political insurrection which seemed to catch the government by surprise and their case wasn’t helped as word broke that ‘professional fees’ had already reached €50m with barely a leak fixed as the usual suspects filled their boots. The relevant minister when asked for an explanation replied that he couldn’t be expected to know where every ‘penny’ went. Though most people signed on to the new system the reality was that the energised resistance to ‘water charges’ campaign won the day and the government capitulated. Back 2012 or so as the country called in the imf (international monetary fund) as a result of the financial collapse one of the recommendations was that Ireland would have to broaden its tax base. You wouldn’t need to be an economic genius to see that. Another was that our ‘professional fees’ were well out of line with similar countries. And so on. Anyway the vested interests soon reasserted control when the Imf departed and practically nothing has changed for the hard pressed taxpayer. There were many unforgivable mistakes made by our political masters in the effort to establish a proper state water company. On the other hand the fallout from the debacle also revealed some harsh political realities which neither the politicians nor voters are willing to confront. That there is further pain awaiting the long suffering Irish paye taxpayer following the coronavirus is as certain as sugar in the kidneys of a diabetic patient.