In a submission lodged last Friday, the Fine Gael group on Dublin City Council raise issues about the presumptions of the brief given to PWC consultants, the findings of the PWC report and some of the problems that will lie ahead unless dealt with beforehand.Cental to these problems is how pleuvial flooding is dealt with in these times of climate change – asking an operational company to deal with unforecastable events is an impossible task
Given these major reservations, their submission proposes a focused board composition, that the water authority would be structured on the natural river basins – with the possibility of inclusion of Northern Ireland. It also suggests the single contracting out of the installation, maintenance, metering and billing of domestic water meters for a period of up to 10 years. A new suggestion is that there should be water credit per resident as opposed to an allowance per person.If usage is low, householders could offset a negative against the household charge.New technology such be deployed that will permit weekly consumption figures to be uploaded onto a website portal that can be accessed either over the web by householders or by an automated freephone number.
“Too often,the set up of a new body is presented as a receipe for a “no problem” solution.We in Fine Gael and in government have to be clever in divining thebest for Ireland,especially in these difficult times.The clever thing is to foresee potential problems beforehand and engineer them out in the planning phase”concludes Councillor Gerry Breen. |
