Irish Water Charges

I have been operating my own business for the last 8 years. I have been appalled at how the Government has handled this whole water charges fiasco. I certainly would not get away with treating my customers this way and I am interested in knowing your views on the matter.

I understand how you are feeling about this whole mess and I also understand why the general public have resisted this particular charge. We all need water, it is such a basic human need and the Government has put us all at the mercy of Irish Water and based on their approach so far it's difficult to believe that they want to put the customer first in all of this.

It's not very nice to feel that you are being taxed for using water or that you have no option but to go with a company that appears to have a very high cost base (especially because of the generous bonuses available for almost everyone in Irish Water without even having to put in an exceptional performance). We've also been told that leaks in the system mean that 40% of the water is being lost and we know that this means that we're all going to have to pay for all of this repair work. If they do fix the leaks it seems that they will be receiving unbelievable bonuses for doing it which will ultimately drive up the cost of our water.

Based on how they have treated householders so far with a lack of clarity on pricing and high call-out charges it is hard for us all to trust these people to provide us with quality water at a fair price. All business owners and consumers know that the customer should be king. But the customer in this case feels that they are being taken advantage of. If Irish Water was operating in a competitive market then the first thing that I would advise them to do would be to guarantee the customer that they are going to supply them with clean, safe water that we can drink straight from the tap.

Secondly they should tell us how they intend dealing with customers where the water supplied is not up to this minimum standard. The customer needs to believe that Irish Water is a low cost operation that is structured to ensure that the customer is going to be looked after properly first and foremost and that extra rewards are only going to be available for staff who deliver an exceptional performance.

Unfortunately though Irish Water does not operate in this kind of world. They have no real competitors, their customers cannot easily move from them, they have been given a major water infrastructure which is connected up to most of the households in the State providing something that we cannot do without and so maybe they think that they can do as they please.

At this stage I think they need to stop and start again sometime in the future when the water quality is up to scratch, when the leaks are fixed, when their cost base is competitive and when they can prove that they know how to look after their customers.