Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The former Minister of State, Deputy Fergus O'Dowd, eventually shed crocodile tears, but it was only after he had been demoted that he described Irish Water as an unmitigated disaster. The horses had already bolted. More recently, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste disagreed with him when they claimed Irish Water was having teething problems. When the Opposition raised the fact that the budget did not adequately deal with people's inability to pay the water charges as then proposed, the Minister for Finance said the Opposition was scratching for an issue. They have been scratching the last few hairs on their heads trying to deal with the issue since. There was another great understatement when the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government wheeled out the CEO of Irish Water to apologise for everything that had gone before.

We had warned about the prevalence of duplication, triplication and waste of taxpayers' money in Irish Water, but it was to no avail. The Government ploughed on regardless, even when its own backbenchers began to express concern in recent months. It has form with this type of arrogance and defiance. We saw this in the context of medical cards, in respect of which the Government denied for 18 months that a cull was ongoing. It was only when it went before the people that it understood what they had thought about the cull. The Government has announced at least ten U-turns since last December. It abandoned the need for PPS numbers and, it appears, meters.

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