Michael Martin proposes 600 job losses in Cork

sozbox

screamer wrote: »

Could be Enda Kenny abolishing it yet...... does that make it any more palatable?

Of course not and I would no longer support FG in that case. Water isn't an issue for FG voters so abolishing it would only lose Kenny support. He would gain nothing
We would all lose actually.

Corholio

overmantle wrote: »

While I'm grateful to have a job, I work long hours, in a stressful position. Like many others, I pay ALL of the various charges and deductions, including water charges. During the period of austerity, it has not been easy, where I have found my job becoming all the more demanding, working longer hours, for significantly less money.

Like many others, I have been prepared to make significant sacrifices, for the benefit of our country and for the recovery of our economy. It has been difficult to see some others saying 'No' to absolutely everything, seemingly unwilling to pay for anything, while others seem to be caught for every charge, every levy, every bill. I don't smoke, I drink very little, I don't have sky sports etc. etc.. Personally, I would have preferred not to have to pay water charges but I realise that to have a properly treated, safe water supply, this costs money.

There has been significant investment in Irish Water, which will hopefully benefit us all. Having said that, if by any chance water charges are reversed, I will expect that those who made the sacrifice and paid the charges should, not only be reimbursed but also rewarded, in some way, for being the ones willing to pay.

That's not what was happening though now was it. It wasn't the extremes of 'anything' and 'everything' that always gets bandied around individual protests. Fair play for paying but don't sit on the high horse about it. The properly treated, safe water supply is not where the money has or would have been going into for the near future. People would not have been so against it had they showed the necessity of having the 'treated, safe' water supply rather than going through all the controversies they did and telling people you must pay for water, nothing is free etc etc. I'd be in favour of reimbursement, as unlikely as that is, but I don't know why you'd want to be 'rewarded'.

FrStone

pwurple wrote: »

I've paid 325 so far because i have no meter installed. Is that very little?

So you've paid for 15 months of water then. €21.67 a month is grand value for the provision of water and the disposal of your waste water. That's not taking into account that you really only paid €225 when you include the water conservation grant.

Going Forward

sozbox wrote: »

What do fellow Cork people think of this? Know anyone working in Abtran or IW that would be affected?

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/irish-water-abolition-would-cost-state-up-to-7bn-1.2556073

I find it very difficult to believe that 400 sustainable jobs were created out of thin air in the first place, based solely on answering phones on behalf of Irish Water for the foreseeable future.

The article actually says that "About 400 people at Abtran’s Cork facility are involved in providing outsourced customer services to Irish Water."

How involved I don't know, but it's going to be taking up less of their time as time goes by regardless of anything happening right now.

Automated voice services are the way forward, real "people" are, in these situations, something of a novelty, but useful for portraying a "personal touch", a factor which is seen as lending credibility and was important during the attempted phasing in of water charges.

Interesting that for most other efficient utilities, the last thing they'd want is to have to pay money so that a "customer" can talk about the weather to someone in a call centre.

But let's go on a guilt trip about it anyway.

FrStone

Going Forward wrote: »

I find it very difficult to believe that 400 sustainable jobs were created out of thin air in the first place, based solely on answering phones on behalf of Irish Water for the foreseeable future.

The article actually says that "About 400 people at Abtran’s Cork facility are involved in providing outsourced customer services to Irish Water."

How involved I don't know, but it's going to be taking up less of their time as time goes by regardless of anything happening right now.

Automated voice services are the way forward, real "people" are, in these situations, something of a novelty, but useful for portraying a "personal touch", a factor which is seen as lending credibility and was important during the attempted phasing in of water charges.

Interesting that for most other efficient utilities, the last thing they'd want is to have to pay money so that a "customer" can talk about the weather to someone in a call centre.

But let's go on a guilt trip about it anyway.

Have you ever rang Irish water? You go through ages of automated machines before being put on hold and getting to speak with someone.

However, you are probably correct in saying 400 is over stated.

flutered

screamer wrote: »

Could be Enda Kenny abolishing it yet...... does that make it any more palatable?

the la's were not going so bad until 2011, when the funding for waters ervices was stopped, along with other funding, rool on a little while until the pension fund was raided to help set up iw, when this was not sufficent they were gifted with the lpt, between bad management, schite consultancys, bonuses for doing nothing, top of the range wages perks etc, plus the fact we were told it would take 50 years to get a proper service up and running, add on siteserv, water meters bought from a warehouse in germany, where they were been stored as faulty, with no paper trail, by d.c.c. they ended up with siteserv, again no paper trail, they were tested by driving a car on top of them to see would they crack, had not the la's a perfect billing systm set up, a data privacy rule breached my an inept minister hidden in a budget byline

valoren

Private route has been an utter failure.
Make it a publicly traded utilities company.
Launch an IPO and get it listed on the london and irish stock exchanges.
Get it listed on these markets to raise the necessary capital.
Let anybody invest in the company.
Allow people the opportunity to own the company and allow them the subsequent right to vote in a Board of Directors
who will hire competent management.
Get the government to apply to the EU for capital investment for Irish Water.

Ludo

valoren wrote: »

Private route has been an utter failure.
Make it a publicly traded utilities company.
Launch an IPO and get it listed on the london and irish stock exchanges.
Get it listed on these markets to raise the necessary capital.
Let anybody invest in the company.
Allow people the opportunity to own the company and allow them the subsequent right to vote in a Board of Directors
who will hire competent management.
Get the government to apply to the EU for capital investment for Irish Water.

**** no. That would be the worst possible thing to do.

mikeym

Privatisation would be the worse possible option.

josip

mikeym wrote: »

Privatisation would be the worse possible option.

Yes, it will be asset stripped until there's nothing left except a great stinking pile of debt.
Think Eircom.

overmantle

Corholio wrote: »

That's not what was happening though now was it. It wasn't the extremes of 'anything' and 'everything' that always gets bandied around individual protests. Fair play for paying but don't sit on the high horse about it. The properly treated, safe water supply is not where the money has or would have been going into for the near future. People would not have been so against it had they showed the necessity of having the 'treated, safe' water supply rather than going through all the controversies they did and telling people you must pay for water, nothing is free etc etc. I'd be in favour of reimbursement, as unlikely as that is, but I don't know why you'd want to be 'rewarded'.

I'm certainly not on any high horse, I can assure you. I rarely post here and didn't check in, since I last posted a few days ago.

The recent election campaign, however, brought into focus, those who appear to be unwilling to pay for anything (I'm not just talking about water) and yet expect everything to be landed on a plate for them.

I note that to date, your comments have not attracted any 'thanks', while the original comments I made have attracted the 'thanks' of 24 posters, none of whom are known to me. They can't all be wrong, surely.