Council Fiasco
Before the recent fiasco over the Donegal Council budget I didn’t know much about Irish Water.
The most centralised Government in Western Europe are now going to centralise all the local water authorities into one.
It seems that the land and assets owned by Donegal Water are valued at €355m. The Government are not going to pay any compensation. They are just going to grab the lot of it.
Centralised
We all know why it is being centralised. It will be eventually flogged to pay off the German, French and British banks who, along with the EU, committed the biggest robbery of all time against the Irish people – assisted and abetted by successive Governments.
That €355m will all end up in the pockets of those banks who loaned Ireland money to pay back the debts built up because of the poor commercial decisions that the German banks etc. took to lend money to the likes of Anglo Irish bank to give 120% mortgages to people who had shown no inclination of being able to save.
Separation
In England those that run the water authorities and those that police them are different companies and agencies. I worked in the IT department as a consultant for Thames water and Anglian Water (note that they are not centralised in England).
I also ‘changed sides’ and worked, on contract, for the National Rivers Authority who monitor them and police them. If the Water authorities step out of line in terms of the quality of the water then they are heavily fined.
Who Is Policing It?
I may be wrong but from what I can make out Irish Water is going to be run by the Department of the Environment. From what I can make out the Department of the Environment is also responsible for policing Irish Water.
How can that be? They can’t fine themselves. Who is going to make sure that Irish Water don’t get up to no good and compromise on the quality of their water?
Consultancy Fees
It seems, also, that Irish water have already spent on €58m in consultancy fees. I’ve worked at companies who use consultancies. I’ve also worked for consultancy companies.
I’ve always found that companies who spend a lot of money on consultants are those with no, or little confidence in their own staff or themselves. They always think that the best people are elsewhere.
It’s companies with no confidence in themselves who use consultants.
Taking Advantage
That’s why Government use them a lot. They generally have no skill or experience in the industries or departments they run – and they don’t think much of their civil servants.
The consultancies talk to them and convince them that they know what the problems are and how to solve them – but at great cost.
Money Well Spent?
The money they have spent on consultancies so far for Irish Water equates to around €26 for each taxpayer in the country – and they say they are short of money. That equates to 50 cents each week each taxpayer is paying the consultants of Irish water.
It seems that his will rise to €85m – which will be €40 per taxpayer a year.
Paying Through the Tap
The Government will then put water meters in and start charging Irish people for the water they drink.
They will then, either sell Irish water and give the money to the German banks or they will ask the Irish people to pay for Irish Water through buying shares in the company – when the people already owned the water through Donegal Council.
The money raised will then be given to the Germans to compensate them for their stupidity in taking the investment decision to loan Anglo Irish money.
Win, Win
In most case, those that make poor investment decisions lose their money. This should have happened to the German banks. For some reason, the Irish people have been asked to stump up the money.
It’s like losing money you couldn’t really afford at the bookies and asking Donegal Council to give you the money back.
Ireland had to bail its own banks out. The German people should have had to bail their banks out as well.Instead the Irish people had to bail out the German, the French and the British banks – and it was called an Irish bailout.
And now Irish Water has been grabbed from local authorities, without compensation, to keep up the payments and paying vast sums to consultancies.
You couldn’t make it up!