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Five reasons why Irish Water should be run by a private company.

Ailish O,Hora 

PUBLISHED

30/10/2014 | 13:27

           

                       

                       

             

             Protesters march on the streets of Dublin during a demonstration against water charges. Photo: PA

THE Irish Water debate is rambling along but as it is we're missing one major point.

Giving the contract to a private company would be beneficial to the taxpayer and the system in the longer run. While many believe that private companies running public utilities is simply a bad idea, it's certainly something that should be considered. Here's five reasons why:

1 Affordability: As a country, we are still borrowing €600m a month to keep teachers in schools and Gardai on the streets. How can we possibly afford another semi-state that has little or no experience in running a water company?

2. Cost: A private company would most likely stump up the initial costs and see the project as a long-term one. Remember the project includes infrastructure costs like billing systems and call centres.  In addition. paying people salaries, rather than costly consultants fees, would save money over time. And the expertise built up would stay with the firm. Which leads to number three.

3. Expertise: Bord Gais has been given the job to establish Irish Water largely on the basis that it set up Bord Gais Energy, the retail arm of the firm. It did so successfully. But that company has since been sold to UK firm Centrica in a €1.1bn deal. So where's the expertise? Private companies have experience running water systems overseas, logically that would have been the right decision, not politically though it would seem.

4. Gains: There are numerous gain share models out there. And depending on the structure, for example, even in a public/private partnership, taxpayers could benefit from profits much quicker than in the current plans. Depending on the model used, profit sharing could be as high as 80/20 to the State.

5. Structure: Critics of the private sector model say that this participation leads to increases in charges. But there are no guarantees that this won't happen anyway if the take-up is lower than expected, for example. Certainly, laying the amalgamation of 34 separate water companies into one is a logistics nightmare for any entity, especially one with no previous experience.

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