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Updated 4.50pm
IRISH WATER MANAGING director John Tierney has apologised to customers for the mistakes made by the utility company in recent months.
Tierney was speaking to reporters at Irish Water headquarters in Dublin after holding a meeting with Environment Minister Alan Kelly.
“I want to apologise to our customers for mistakes that have been made. We are working with the government to address all of the issues that have arisen,” he said.
Kelly admitted there have been “major failings” in the way the semi-state company was set up and indicated that the proposed cap on charges would be extended to 2016 while more meters are installed across the country.
“Being frank about it, there’s been a lot of mistakes made in relation to the set up of Irish Water,” Kelly said. “I want to acknowledge here and now that there were absolute mistakes made in relation to the scale of this project.”
Watch: Alan Kelly says Irish Water is necessary:
Video: Órla Ryan/TheJournal.ie
He said that idea Irish Water could be set up in a couple of years was “simply wrong” saying it was a five-to-six year project. Kelly said the legislation to establish and subsequent setting up of Irish Water was “rushed” and “inappropriate” but he stopped short of blaming his predecessor Phil Hogan.
As the Government prepares to announce new measures aimed responding to public anger over Irish Water, Kelly said he was pushing for charges to be “defined for a period of time so that Irish Water can be set up fully”.
He said that the announcement on charges is likely next week that they “are going to be modest” and “people will be happy with them”.
Kelly also acknowledged the people protesting against Irish Water at the weekend and said under no circumstances would he agree with it being privatised. He did not rule out a referendum on ensuring that the public water supply is kept in state ownership.
On bonuses at Irish Water Kelly added: “I don’t tolerate them, I don’t believe them, I don’t think they’re appropriate.”
Speaking in Dublin this afternoon, the Taoiseach said that the Government needs to be ”clear and accurate” about how water charges will be spent so that “people will have confidence” in what Irish Water is doing.
Enda Kenny said that the charges are “obviously on people’s minds and very much to the fore of their thinking”, adding that the Government is focused on ensuring households and businesses alike receive “water of good integrity”.
Meanwhile another day of protest over Irish Water is to take place on 10 December. Over 100,000 people took to the streets across the country on Saturday, demanding the repealing of the controversial charge.
Brendan Ogle of the Right2Water campaign says that the protest will see the handing over of a petition outside the Dáil.
“This is a double tax,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today.
The Taoiseach said this weekend that if there were no water charges, the other option would be a 4 per cent rise in income tax. Ogle said that claim was “utter nonsense” and accused the Taoiseach of “talking through his hat”.
However, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney told the same programme that there is no chance of Irish Water going anywhere.
There is one certainty, Irish Water will not be scrapped.
“Irish Water has spent a lot of money to set up a very large new company, which is going to remain in public ownership, and is going to provide water in a much more cost-effective and efficient manner in the future.
“But I think we need to learn from some of the mistakes that have been made over the last six or eight months.”
Also speaking on the water charges issue on Newstalk Breakfast, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald further explained her decision announced yesterday that she will not be paying her Irish Water bill:
My concern at this point is for the vast numbers of people who can’t pay, it’s not a case of them saying they won’t pay or won’t pay. They simple don’t have the resources to pay an existing bill.
“As an act of solidarity to people who can’t pay I won’t be paying”,” she said.
“As angry as people are as regards these charges, what I’ve picked up in the past few weeks from people in my own community who I represent, is that people are afraid as well, and that’s an awful state of affairs.”
Elsewhere, South Dublin County Council will vote on a motion calling for the scrapping of the charge today.
- additional reporting by Rónán Duffy, Órla Ryan, and Hugh O’Connell
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Closing my account next week :) Received a letter saying they were closing my cashsave account leaving me with only my current. I need both. With the charges etc coming in it gives me great pride to close my account after 17 years and say “F*ck you AIB” :)
There’s apparently a flood of peeps closing their accounts… what gobdaw (or committee) thought this was a good strategy? Probably the same shmuck who thought up the campaign about how Ann Glynn had cracked it all those years ago!
Really??? Good! I don’t think any thought is going into these decisions at all. The banks are not being run like a business anymore. They have adopted the same attitude of “F*ck’em we are the best, we dont need anything crazy like a good service etc” its all falling around them now.
My rule of thumb is anytime I hear Hobbs speak I turn the tv or radio off.
Denmark winds up two banks. Burns the bondholders and the markets love them.
What kind of morons do we have running this country and who the f*ck is advising them?
Unfortunately finna fail decided to turn banking debt into sovereign debt, we can’t do what denmark did without defaulting on our national debt meaning no return to the markets for a long time. God I hate Bertie and the 2 Brians soo bad.
Perhaps Noonan might address where the money given to the banks (more widely) has gone, because it hasn’t been used to get lending going/ write-off customer debts… I heard Eddie Hobbs claim (on Pat Kenny’s radio show last week) that banks have put huge volumes of cash on deposit with the ECB where higher interest can be earned… that wasn’t what the bailout was for, was it? Can anyone shed more light on Hobbs’s claim?
The money is required to pay for Greek feta for baldy Noonan!
Just accept that the money is GONE and when it’s GONE, it’s GONE!!
Amazing that after 4 years of public interest, the banks asset quality and transparency cannot be assured or even quantified. How many millions wasted on consultants, nama etc and still noone really knows how much of a mess is in there.
“No body wants to buy it at present ”
The foresight of this man is astounding he’ll be up for Nobel prize for economics if he keeps this brilliance up
One half of the chuckle brothers at play
Totally agree with you John! Noonan is only interested in collecting as much cash as possible! No long term thinking is going on here! The bastards in government think that if they keep Europe sweet, nothing else matters! They don’t give a shit about people’s living standards! As long as it doesn’t affect the elite! We the common people are only a necessary evil in their eyes. We supposedly own AIB, but you would never know by the way they’ve been allowed to do as they like. Do Noonan and his cronies think that there’s no limit as to what we are prepared to tolerate? It’s disgusting to hear them beg for a yes vote! Oh how I wish enough of us would vote no on Thursday. Can’t pretend I know for sure what would happen to Ireland if this were to happen, but I know that the common people can’t possibly be any worse off! As for being starved of funding, if what our so called leaders are telling us is true, then our only option would be a complete default! I really don’t think our European friends would accept that scenario! As far as I can see, a no vote would almost certainly force Fine Gael/ Labour out of office! I mean how could they possibly continue after all the effort put into getting the people to vote yes?
The recent sunshine has addled his bald head! Well, addled it more than it was!
How many kilos of feta would buy AIB, Mr Noonan?
Bank of Ireland debt is still guaranteed by the taxpayer. That was a condition for private investment.
As far as I know AIB and BOI bought a lot of Irish bonds at a cut rate to make a profit ,,,,with Irish tax payers cash !
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