Irish Water: News From The Hub Ireland - Tsunami of Litigations. - Bills Sent to Dead Man

April 10, 2015

Tsunami of Litigations Over contracts

We got our 'bill' today and opened it. We honed in on the 'thank you for registering with Irish Water' comment and decided to ring them. We pursued it down the phone and insisted on knowing precisely when and how we had registered.
We were informed that we had registered on a date in February over the phone - we explained categorically that this was not the case.

The operative went away for a while and came back sounding very unsure.
At this point we called everything in - suspecting that an act of fraud may have been committed.
If someone claims that we made a phone call blah blah! sure you guys do this every day.....
But we demanded a transcript of the call in question, plus the call we

were currently on, and copies of all data relating to ourselves that they may have obtained.
I would hate to think of tens of thousands of people making similar phone calls and questioning how and when these were set up. It would be terrible. I'd hate to see such a 'excuse the pun - tsunami of litigation concerning fraudulent misrepresentation of contracts.

By the Hub Ireland

Irish Water Sends Bill to Dead Man

A widow of a deceased man from Gorey Co Wexford wrote in The Hub Ireland " I'm at a loss for words... not only did Irish Water send the deceased man a bill but acknowledged on said bill he died.
This morning's post. Two letters from Irish Water addressed to my deceased husband. Nearly 6 years dead and you dare to put that on a letter. No, I will not be contacting you to clarify your error". She went on to say that she hopes she is the only person this has happened to "as this is a callous disregard for human decency."

The Irish Times quoted a spokeswoman for Irish Water “Irish water will be sending bills to 1.5 million customers over the coming eight weeks.

“It’s a significant task and we expect to face challenges where we have incomplete customer information, where customers have not yet registered or where customer information needs to be updated.
“We totally understand and apologise for upset caused by incorrect customer information, and our contact centre staff are ready to accept customer registrations or to correct any data inaccuracies quickly so that information is correct for future billing cycles.”

This action by Irish Water is one of the most significant and revealing actions by the company to date. Could Irish Water have sent a bill to a dead person with the address Alan Montague (RIP) with the knowledge he was dead? Did Irish Water include (RIP) after the name?

If Irish Water did then there are serious questions to be asked. Why, for example? Their explanation in the Irish Times cuts no ice. They knowingly sent the bill in the expectation of getting a response to update their details. If that's the case it could be regarded as an extremely callous if not repugnant act. Can there be any excuses?

Could it be that this address including (RIP) was passed on to Irish Water? If so by whom? This could have serious implications with regard to data protection.

Minister Alan Kelly and the Government must ask these questions of Irish Water. The family deserve an explanation and a proper apology.

From The Hub Ireland

Gardai Raid Two Homes in Letterkenny, Co Donegal Allege Theft of Irish Water property

April 9, 2015

DonegalDaily online newspaper reported that Gardai raided two homes in Letterkenny as part of an investigation into the alleged theft of Irish Water property. The searches took place on Friday morning April 3. DonegalDaily said " it is understood that property was recovered but no arrests were made." According to the article Garda Superintendent David Kelly responded to claims by Councillor Michael Mac Giolla Easbuig by saying that "this matter is currently under investigation and as this investigation is ongoing, we cannot make any further comment at this stage"

Micheal Cholm Mac Giolla Easbuig, Donegal Can't Pay Won't Pay spokesperson, has strongly condemned Gardai raids on the homes of anti-water meter activists as an unacceptable escalation of political policing. "The only thing these activists are guilty of, is standing up for their communities by helping them to resist unwanted and unnecessary water meters. They have stood with people day after day throughout the winter months in all sorts of weather helping them to assert their rights not to have a meter imposed against their wishes. Where are the Garda raids on the homes of swindling bankers? Why no arrests of bribing builders who piled their fortunes high and walked away from half-finished developments? And why no dawn raids on corrupt and thieving politicians who facilitated this whole sorry mess? It is because we are being subjected to an unacceptable escalation in political policing with only those who are trying to stop the imposition of bailout taxes like water charges being subjected to dawn raids, arrests and imprisonment."

From The Journal.ie a news website
Councillor Micheal Cholm Mac Giolla Easbuig, who has been speaking with the two householders, said people involved in the protest movement were “very frightened” in the wake of the raids, which happened between 9am and 10am on Good Friday. The councillor said “worthless” pieces of scrap plastic left on a path by contractors had been taken by a group of protesters. The plastic casings – which he maintained were “broken, dirty and old” – would have been replaced with new material during the installation process, he said. However, Mac Giolla Easbuig said the material was disposed of by the activists and maintained none was found in the home searches. He said a number of €2 plastic plugs – which campaign groups have been offering for sale around the country – were taken from one of the houses. (Activists have been encouraging people to remove their water meters and uses the caps to keep their supply flowing – it’s not something Irish Water endorses).

Mr Mac Giolla Easbuig said " Our message is that we will not be intimidated by political policing. We will continue to support all those who resist metering and support the boycott. The best way for anyone who shares our anger at these events is to show it, is by supporting the Bin The Bills demonstration on 25th April."

Can't Pay Won't Pay Bin The Bills demonstation Letterkenny April 25

Eurostat finally receives request from Ireland - Irish Water Stress Test Begins

April 8, 2015

Buncrana Together received word from the European Statistical Data support (ESDS), Eurostat, that they have just received a request from Ireland re market test on Irish Water. They informed us that " Eurostat is going to examine it in accordance with the procedure. No further comment will be made during this procedure."

For those who are technically minded Eurostat went on to say "The criteria describing the classification of the unit either inside or outside of government sector is described in Manual on Government Deficit and Debt (MGDD) in the chapter I.2 Criteria for classifying units to the general government sector. The MGDD can be found in the website of Eurostat ( see MGDD ) . The criteria contains several steps and the quantitative market/non-market test is described in detail at part I.2.4.3 of the previously mentioned chapter. The main thing in this particular part of the process is to determine whether a producer is market, it must sell its products at an economically significant price which, in practice, would be assessed if the sales of the producer cover a majority of the production costs."

For the less technically minded what this means is that Eurostat is going to do a market test on Irish Water. The Government has to prove that more than 50% of Irish Water's running costs are form customers, both private and business, in order for it to be taken off the State balance sheet. If Irish Water fails the test this could have dire consequences for future budgets. It could mean €600 million will be added to the deficit this year. It would affect Irish Water's long term investment programmes which are planned on the basis that it will be off the State balance sheet. Any State investment in Irish Water would come on to the State balance sheet. One of the key issues here is the €100 conservation grant which the Government hopes will be separate form Irish Water.

There still remains controversy in the Irish public and opposition politicians surrounding the Central Statistics Office's (CSO) delay in supplying Eurostat with data and requesting a market test (see Buncrana Together)

It was widely known that the CSO was to request this since last year and that the results of the Eurostat test would be out mid March 2015. This deadline was missed by a long shot. Now Eurostat's decision could take a couple of months yet, however, there is no definite date.

Some suggest that the delay was intentional because Irish Water is behind schedule with their metering programme and developing their customer base. Any lay person would think that showing a large customer base would be one of the most important elements in proving that a company is viable. Irish Water and the Government insist that all users of the public water supply are customers of Irish Water even though households have not signed a contract with them. Irish Water say that the Water Services Acts 2007 and 2013 gives it this right.

It remains to be seen what way Eurostat will look at it whether it will accept Irish Water's customer claim or whether it will take into consideration the sizeable opposition to Irish Water in Ireland, including politicians. A layperson would find it hard to understand how a company could be viable if a sizeable number of it's potential customers are not going to pay. Unless Eurostat accepts that the Government will recoup the money out of the public one way or another.

There was an interesting line in an Irish Times article on the subject ( see Irish Times CSO provisionally puts Irish Water on State books) where it states "It appears likely the CSO has indicated to Eurostat its support for Irish Water to remain off balance sheet. "

So the controversy continues. Previous questions on CSO's delay by Sean Fleming FF in a Public Affairs Sub Committee meeting, got stern reactions from both Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tanaiste Joan Burton when they defended the impartiality of the CSO. See Buncrana Together

If you have any requests to Eurostat you can go to ( Eurostat ).