Attended the Irish Water Regional Briefing Session for Elected Members this morning in the Green Isle Hotel with Cllr. Joe Fox and Cllr. Gillian Toole . Considering how topical this issue is I was surprised to see that only 8 Councillors attended from Meath (3), Wicklow, Dublin and Kildare. There is another session this evening at 4.30pm and hopefully the turn out will be bigger. The upside to the small turnout was that we almost got a one to one session with The CEO and Management of Irish Water and were able to raise all of the concerns currently circulating regarding Irish Water. The following is a brief synopsis of the issues raised and the response from IW. Please don’t shoot the messenger if you don’t agree with the responses. 1. Water Charges. Irish Water in order to raise money for necessary improvements to the 58 Km of water and 42 km of waste pipe network (independent from Government and off balance sheet-not affecting our National deficit) must as a utility show that it has a customer base and recurring revenue streams. If there are no water charges (no revenue) going to IW they will not as a utility be able to borrow the necessary capital. Of the €1.2Billion currently being spent on water services , leakages from old pipe works etc. Is costing circa €480m per annum and this needs to be addressed. IW will spend €310m this year ,increasing to €400m next year to start dealing with this problem. This will increase to €600m p.a in future year’s . 2. Privatisation. IW is owned by Bord Na Mona (1%) and by the Irish Government (99%). By legislation it cannot be sold without further legislation being passed at some future date to privatise it. It would be a brave Government who would attempt to privatise the utility. 3. PPS number requirement. IW by legislation and covered by all data protection legislation is required to gather this detail because it is administering a government allowance for free water for households. If you apply for a dental allowance, children’s allowance, fuel allowance etc you are required to give your PPS number. 4. Water meters and contamination concerns. IW complies with all EU and Irish regulations regarding metering. You are entitled and must have access to your water meter and ballcock etc. Anyone else who interferes with your meter to contaminate your water supply is committing a criminal offense. IW have installed 450k meters in ten months. 5. Hard Water issues. Hard Water is a location issue. IW will not be charging a reduced rate for hard water areas and by EPA and EU regulations cannot soften the water at source even if they had the finance to do so. 6. Performance bonus/awards for IW staff and management. IW’s pay system is based on the Bord Na Mona model of a basic salary and a performance related bonus on achieving agreed targets. There is and will not be an annual incremental similar to the public sector. 7. Billing. IW will be issuing invoices in January 2015 for the period covering 1st Oct to 31st December 2014. They will do similar in April for the period Jan to March and in July for the period Apr to June. While the bills will outline your usage , you will be charged at a flat rate for these 9 months. If your usage is higher than this flat charge, you will not be asked for the difference BUT if your usage is less than the flat charge you will be refunded. Standard credit terms =14 days. 8. Leaks. Localised leaks are being identified through metering and first fix scheme in operation. 9. Water allowance. 44% of anticipated water charges are being covered by allowances.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 14:27:48 +0000
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