Water ownership...It hasn't gone away you know.

James Brown

irishfeen wrote: »

And have you ever wondered why the water network is in such a bad state? ... it has been the massive under investment in water for decades.

EPS and other private firms have taken over Water/Wastewater Treatment Plants and have ran them into the ground as they cut corners to make a profit and some have been handed back to the local authorities.

Other private firms fixing the actual leaks (or attempting to) on the networks are actively trying to take on LA staff because they have absolutely no knowledge of how to find or fix the leaks.

The LA staff are the experts in providing and running the water network, it is not their fault under investment has the network in such a state.

It is very very easy to spout “facts” that LA workers are useless and the likes but I would love to know could you run a WTP or find a leak or fix a leak. Most if not all Water Caretakers are now fully qualified with papers to run water treatment plants - they provide a 24/7 365 day a year service for a wage of 32-35k per annum.

This has been covered and acknowledged by Irish water.
For some reason best known to themselves, some feel the best way to counter the inadequacies of the LA's is by creating a quango and getting the LA's to do the exact same job they have always done but now with more funding and try bring their workers into the IW quango. Odd, I know.

blanch152

irishfeen wrote: »

And have you ever wondered why the water network is in such a bad state? ... it has been the massive under investment in water for decades.

EPS and other private firms have taken over Water/Wastewater Treatment Plants and have ran them into the ground as they cut corners to make a profit and some have been handed back to the local authorities.

Other private firms fixing the actual leaks (or attempting to) on the networks are actively trying to take on LA staff because they have absolutely no knowledge of how to find or fix the leaks.

The LA staff are the experts in providing and running the water network, it is not their fault under investment has the network in such a state.

It is very very easy to spout “facts” that LA workers are useless and the likes but I would love to know could you run a WTP or find a leak or fix a leak. Most if not all Water Caretakers are now fully qualified with papers to run water treatment plants - they provide a 24/7 365 day a year service for a wage of 32-35k per annum.

Funniest post in a long time on here.

Water services were the responsibility of the local authorities for a century. They made an awful goddamn mess of doing the job.

The EU with its river basin approach has thankfully forced a change and now we actually see a decent single utility taking a broader approach.

The local authorities used to run vocational education, motor tax, driving licences, property taxes (rates), school attendance officers, national roads, and many, many other services. Just like water, those services had to be taken off local authorities because of the ingrained incompetence.

BTW, there isn't a single person providing a 24/7 365 service in the public service for a wage of 32/35k. Once you add on shift allowance, overtime and premium pay, you can add another 20/30% to that.

irishfeen

blanch152 wrote: »

Funniest post in a long time on here.

Water services were the responsibility of the local authorities for a century. They made an awful goddamn mess of doing the job.

The EU with its river basin approach has thankfully forced a change and now we actually see a decent single utility taking a broader approach.

The local authorities used to run vocational education, motor tax, driving licences, property taxes (rates), school attendance officers, national roads, and many, many other services. Just like water, those services had to be taken off local authorities because of the ingrained incompetence.

BTW, there isn't a single person providing a 24/7 365 service in the public service for a wage of 32/35k. Once you add on shift allowance, overtime and premium pay, you can add another 20/30% to that.

Shift allowance and premium pay? Apart from caretakers on shift in the bigger plants there is no such thing as shift allowance.

As for overtime, do you not want workers to get overtime money for working outside their 40 hour a week contract? And in fact I am aware of places where overtime is refused and caretakers are made take time in lieu instead.

Water caretakers are on call 24/7 unless they are on annual leave, in some counties the council has contracts with private firms for an After Hours call service to ring caretakers.

blanch152

irishfeen wrote: »

Shift allowance and premium pay? Apart from caretakers on shift in the bigger plants there is no such thing as shift allowance.

As for overtime, do you not want workers to get overtime money for working outside their 40 hour a week contract? And in fact I am aware of places where overtime is refused and caretakers are made take time in lieu instead.

Water caretakers are on call 24/7 unless they are on annual leave, in some counties the council has contracts with private firms for an After Hours call service to ring caretakers.

Oh, thanks for reminding me of call-out allowance and minimum payments for call-outs. Add them to the shift allowance, overtime, premium payments etc.

You haven't addressed the more general issue of ingrained incompetence over decades in local authorities.