A PUBLIC meeting due to be held in New Ross this evening could prove to be a volatile and fiery affair.
Independent T.D., Mick Wallace, has launched a scathing attack on Irish Water and is encouraging as many people as possible to attend tomorrow night’s meeting – at which both he and Clare Daly T.D. are scheduled to speak.
In particular he focussed attention on bonuses within the body – which spokespeople for the organisation have denied is taking place.
“You would think that when a Government pours hundreds of millions of euro into a body you’d have something substantial to show for it,” said Dep. Wallace.
“With Irish Water, once you peek behind the curtain, you don’t even get the fake wizard, all you have PR,” he added.
He highlighted an incident last week when an Irish Water ‘spin doctor’ stated that people within the organisation don’t get paid bonuses.
“He said they get paid ‘performance-related awards’,” said Dep. Wallace.
“They must actually think we all came down in the last shower,” he added.
He also said he was “mystified” as to why Irish Water would pay its people bonuses when many of the issues and concerns customers have are not being addressed.
Criticising the fact that many customers can’t get answers when they phone the organisation or get responses to emails Dep. Wallace described as ‘alarming’ the number of cases where Irish Water personnel “can’t remember where they placed water meters or which water meter corresponds to which home”.
The meeting tonight in the Brandon House Hotel will get underway at 8 p.m. and Dep. Wallace is hoping as many people as possible from the New Ross district area will be in attendance.
“We held a meeting in White’s Hotel in Wexford a few weeks ago and it was standing room only,” he said.
“It wasn’t just serial protesters, there were people of all classes and from every political persuasion there because people either don’t want to pay a lot of money for a rubbish service or they can’t afford to pay a lot of money for a rubbish service,” he added.
“I expect an even bigger turnout in New Ross as more and more people begin to see through Irish Water for the sham that it is.”
