It seems that most people have forgotten about what was one of the most contentious political issues of the past decade, the decision to introduce water charges and install water meters outside every house in the country. Ultimately the Government had to abandon the idea of charging for water but only after spending almost €500k on meter installation.
August 15, 2015 "It makes no sense to spend hundreds of millions of euro metering a leaky system" - Brendan Howlin 2011 (before he became Minister for Public Expenditure & Reform) Like most people in the developed world we have become mesmerised by the word “conservation”. Unfortunately, here in Ireland, we have applied it to water with the same enthusiasm as others have applied it to endangered species, oil reserves, tropical forests and to water resources in California. When it comes to water conservation, we are transfixed to the point where most people fail to apply any rational thought to the reasons for conserving, the consequences of conserving, the ‘benefits’ of conserving, or the cost of conserving. Of course water conservation is a good thing, even here in Ireland. However, the only reason we have in Ireland for limiting water usage is to save money. That reason has either been forgotten or there is a misplaced assumption that whatever we spe