Irish Water has found themselves in the news yet again this morning and this time they have come in for heavy criticism from the CEO of its parent company Ervia. The Chief Michael McNicholas has slammed the state ran utility saying management at the company have ’come up short’ in explaining how the charge is run.
Mr McNicholas also said that the company’s ‘failure’ to explain the ‘need’ for a water charge and an overhaul of water infrastructure was made significantly worse by poor explanation about the costs involved.
Mr McNicholas made his comments whilst he was speaking at a debate on the Irish Water saga at the MacGill Summer School in Co Donegal last night. Mr McNicholas heavily criticised delegates who attended the meeting by saying that a lot more could have been done to put the public fears at ease, Mr McNicholas said:”We came up short as well. We could have been clearer about how unfit the water infrastructure is. How much was needed to be done to fix that infrastructure.” “We could have explained much better how we set up Irish Water in the first place.”
He further stated: “How we took some of the greatest young Irish talent and built a new modern Irish utility from scratch in 18 months, at less than half the cost of the international benchmarks. “Instead of that, it has been characterised as lavish spending on consultants.”
Meanwhile the meeting was marred by controversy before it had even begun as the Environment Minster Alan Kelly failed to appear at the debate stating that he could not attend due to a diary clash.