The need for central planning and a national water utility is unquestionable when considered in the context of the scandalous neglect with which many local authorities operated water treatment systems. They had little money. So they ignored official requests to replace lead piping that posed particular risks to children and they failed to take alternative, remedial measures. They discharged untreated sewage and they operated dangerously inadequate water treatment plants.
Gross incompetence and central government unwillingness to provide funding created the situation that Irish Water inherited. A 10-year plan to replace dangerous lead piping, along with an immediate scheme to coat the inside of such pipes with orthophosphates, will cost an estimated €448 million. The size of the bill dwarfs the €162 million that Irish Water has collected to date.
The cost of providing a safe, modern water supply and an effective wastewater treatment system has been estimated at €3.8 billion. The bill is so large and the implications for future tax reductions so negative that the previous government tried to keep it off its balance sheet. It failed. As a consequence, the Department of Finance is funding the remedial work by Irish Water on a temporary basis and the State is heading towards a political misjudgment of train-crash proportions.
The two main parties agree, in principle, that water charges are necessary. In seeking election, however, a majority of successful TDs opposed them. These elected representatives now appear willing to accept the third-world services that will inevitably follow cuts in funding. The scale of past neglect and unacceptable services was signalled through “boil water” notices, outbreaks of cryptosporidium, closed beaches and fish kills. That didn’t include the insidious threat from lead pipes that can cause brain damage, cancer and high blood pressure. Fifteen years ago, remedial measures involving the use of orthophosphates were introduced in Britain. They will be introduced here in the autumn. Do we really want to return to the bad old days?