Richard O'Donoghue: Blames Irish Water, Demands Local Accountability
Richard O'Donoghue criticised the removal of local authority control over water infrastructure and accused the new bodies — variously named in the speech as Ishgair or Irish Wall — of lacking accountability. He said local councillors and deputies once oversaw contractors who delivered works on time and on budget, and urged an audit of the new organisation's accounts.
Accountability and delivery
He argued that local authorities provided necessary oversight and accountability for infrastructure projects, keeping projects on budget and on time. Councillors and deputies kept track of where money was spent and contractors were managed under local remit, he said.
Concerns about 'Ishgair' and 'Irish Wall'
He called for the books of the replacement bodies, referred to in the speech as Ishgair, Irish Wall and Ish Gairn, to be audited to see how much money goes to top-end salaries versus on-the-ground infrastructure. He described the new bodies as not being accountable, and linked that lack of accountability to a failure of delivery.
EPA findings and pollution claims
He recalled that the EPA and governments had labelled farmers the biggest polluters, and countered that government operations are the biggest polluters under the available stats because of raw storage discharges into rivers. He argued farmers are improving and upgrading their systems while the same governance is not adapting.
Proposal for builders to deliver infrastructure
He proposed letting builders and designers who construct houses also build the associated infrastructure to government criteria, arguing they can make money and deliver projects. He contrasted that with state-funded projects that, he said, fail due to a lack of accountability and produce no delivery.
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Bottom line, it should have never taken off the local authorities. It should have never been set up. Why would we have accountability then? Because, number one, you have the councillors can keep a good eye on what needs to be done with infrastructure within the areas. The deputies of this house could also keep in line with that and let you know where the money was being sent. And the other thing was, they were actually getting in contractors to do the work under their remit, under their designs, on budget, on time. The contractor was making a few pounds, but he was being overseen by the local authorities. It was being done. Now we have Ishgair and Irish Wall, whatever you want to call them these days, let's look and audit their books. How much is actually going in to the top-end salaries, and how much is actually going in to the ground in replacing infrastructure. The EPA came out first then and all governments were coming out saying, oh, farmers are the biggest polluters in Ireland. The government are the biggest polluters in Ireland, under the stats that are there, because of all the raw storage, going into all the rivers, that people are drinking. You are treating it, and people are drinking it. The farmers have been now shown that the only ones that are improving the network with all what they are doing. Keeping within the criteria is all the regulations and upgrading their systems week on week, month on month, they are making changes. But the same governance that is over them is not. So how can you go into someone saying, you are the polluter, and fine you, but if you went in and looked at anything that has been done at the moment, and we have defunct systems all over the country. I have always said it, and I will say it again. There are people there building houses, design, deliver, let them build the infrastructure for it, on the criteria of what the government wants. They can make money on delivering it, and you can't actually deliver on something that's actually been fully paid for by the state. You can't deliver it. No accountability, that's why we have no delivery, and that's why we are not getting any messages back from Ish Gairn, because they are not accountable.
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