THE WATER REVOLUTION: PUBLIC GETS “BUSINESS AS USUAL” ASSURANCE FROM OFFICIALS…BUT SOME COUNCILLORS FEAR THE WORST!

Contrasting pictures of the new era for domestic and commercial water and sewerage consumers that will dawn in 2014 when Irish Water takes over responsibility for the provision of these services from local authorities were painted at Monday’s meeting of Monaghan Co Council.

Council officialdom imparted a “business as usual” assurance to the Co Monaghan public and pointed out that steps were being taken, including the acquisition of additional staff, to ensure that the same level of service, and complaint and emergency response, would be provided after the changeover.

However, some of the elected members had a more dystopian view of the future, with Fianna Fáil’s Pádraig McNally predicting that the cost of water to consumers could increase massively, and Sinn Féin councillor Matt Carthy proposing that the Council executive refrain from signing any agreement with Irish Water until independent legal advice was obtained on a number of issues arising from the new arrangements, including the surrender of local authority assets and whether the public’s rights to water supply were being infringed.

Fine Gael members argued that the advent of Irish Water could see more …