Rise in water meter millions unacceptable – Crowe

Dublin South West TD Seán Crowe has said that the rise in Meter Millions are unacceptable and said that hard pressed tax payers deserve answers to why millions of euros for the cost of unwanted meters are going up and up.

Crowe was speaking after it emerged at the weekend  that there was a €108 million ‘mark up’ in water metering costs in a period of eight weeks last year.

Metering costs were originally supposed to come in at around €431 million when assessed by external consultants back in May 2013 but rocketed to €539 million just a short  couple of weeks later.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“The saga of Irish Water continues to be blight on the back of hard pressed taxpayers. They will no doubt be delighted to hear that the cost of unwanted meters have rocketed from €431 million to €539 million.

“More serious question arise out of this huge jump in costs.

“This jump of €108 million also occurred a month after contracts for water meters were awarded.

“Irish Water has been rightly described an unmitigated disaster with scandal after scandal emerging almost on a daily basis.

“Members of the public, many who are tax payers who are seeing shrinking pay packets, are quite rightly asking where all this is going.

“The Government are not producing figures to account for this huge increase in expenditure.

“It is increasingly becoming evident that the Government is intent on simply giving Irish Water a blank cheque.

“Irish Water needs to be fully accountable to the Irish Parliament, with The Comptroller and Auditor General as well as the Public Accounts Committee having the right to scrutinise their accounts.

“Sadly Irish Water seems to be a law unto itself and lacking any oversight. €539 million is now being spent on unwanted meters.

“Irish Water is clearly not fit for purpose and effectively needs to be wound down. Environment Minister Alan Kelly also needs to come into the Dáil again and answer more questions relating to this water ‘meter millions’ madness.”