The Fine Gael thread

[Maguire01]

Regulators don't always work out too well - remember the financial regulator around 2007

Loans MR Fitzpatrick took from his bank worth 94 million euros for himself were unethical not illegal because the regulator had no actual financial policies, procedure or actual regulation in place apart from high level references

Water privatization incl meters and f&f could be done in local regions, counties, councils. Not sure if that would be the way to go but certainly under licence without making the Irish water company another public sector lazy ass entity waste of money drain on the taxpayer exercise!

Private companies, in the absence of competition, still need a regulator.

And given your "public sector lazy ass entity" comments, why not privatise the health service too?

[lynchbhoy]

Regulators don't always work out too well - remember the financial regulator around 2007

Loans MR Fitzpatrick took from his bank worth 94 million euros for himself were unethical not illegal because the regulator had no actual financial policies, procedure or actual regulation in place apart from high level references

Water privatization incl meters and f&f could be done in local regions, counties, councils. Not sure if that would be the way to go but certainly under licence without making the Irish water company another public sector lazy ass entity waste of money drain on the taxpayer exercise!

Private companies, in the absence of competition, still need a regulator.

And given your "public sector lazy ass entity" comments, why not privatise the health service too?

yes - I never said we didn't.
But a regulator with powers, plus more importantly, with actual policies and procedures. Unlike the old financial one.

there is already competition in health sector. With a few private hospitals doing v well for themselves - blackrock, hermitage, galway etc etc

[mikehunt]

Regulators don't always work out too well - remember the financial regulator around 2007

Loans MR Fitzpatrick took from his bank worth 94 million euros for himself were unethical not illegal because the regulator had no actual financial policies, procedure or actual regulation in place apart from high level references

Water privatization incl meters and f&f could be done in local regions, counties, councils. Not sure if that would be the way to go but certainly under licence without making the Irish water company another public sector lazy ass entity waste of money drain on the taxpayer exercise!

Private companies, in the absence of competition, still need a regulator.

And given your "public sector lazy ass entity" comments, why not privatise the health service too?

yes - I never said we didn't.
But a regulator with powers, plus more importantly, with actual policies and procedures. Unlike the old financial one.

there is already competition in health sector. With a few private hospitals doing v well for themselves - blackrock, hermitage, galway etc etc

you're wasting your time trying to talk common sense to him. His strategy to address the deficit is to implement a new super quango. I can picture him reading policies and procedures in order to help him make a decision in his comfy public sector job.

[johnneycool]

I wouldn't be a fan of Murphy and would never vote for him however he was elected on the back of the Water Charges. He is doing what the people asked him to do unlike the majority of politicians. Their ideas for the economy are a bit far fetched but Joe Higgins does make some fair points on how the money could be raised. Just because they can talk nonsense some of the time doesn't mean they don't have good ideas.

A stopped clock is right twice a day.

Which would be two nil to the clock when up against you and you're "shir it'll do and stop yere complaining"

You want to tell us how you'd introduce competition for water?

To not have competition in a privatised situation would result in a monopoly, making competition necessary, not impossible as u suggest.

I appreciate it's a monopoly. That's why there's a regulator.

But you want to introduce competition and I want to understand how it would work. Take my own county. How would two or more water (and sewage) utilities operate? Would there be multiple networks within and between every town? Would each utility construct their own treatment works and reservoirs? If so, do you think this would make water cheaper or more expensive.

Eirgrid is the electricity equivalent, but it has not competition for the reasons you outline.

Power stations could have a water equivalent I suppose to have competition, but the network & meters and would still remain with the monopoly as they do with Eirgrid.

The Great British system, power, water, even rail, has the infrastructure owned and maintained by one company with the suppliers paying a set fee for the use of the infrastructure and have access to all customers on that infrastructure. i.e Virgin trains pay to use the rail lines they use to Network Rail who maintain the railway lines and signalling. Each company tenders for the services they wish to run.

I'd say due to economies of scale it wouldn't be feasible to do this for water, but Power, with the new interconnects, that's a different story a few years down the line.

[Mayo4Sam]

What are you talking about?

We already have that system for electricity and gas

[Maguire01]

I wouldn't be a fan of Murphy and would never vote for him however he was elected on the back of the Water Charges. He is doing what the people asked him to do unlike the majority of politicians. Their ideas for the economy are a bit far fetched but Joe Higgins does make some fair points on how the money could be raised. Just because they can talk nonsense some of the time doesn't mean they don't have good ideas.

A stopped clock is right twice a day.

Which would be two nil to the clock when up against you and you're "shir it'll do and stop yere complaining"

You want to tell us how you'd introduce competition for water?

To not have competition in a privatised situation would result in a monopoly, making competition necessary, not impossible as u suggest.

I appreciate it's a monopoly. That's why there's a regulator.

But you want to introduce competition and I want to understand how it would work. Take my own county. How would two or more water (and sewage) utilities operate? Would there be multiple networks within and between every town? Would each utility construct their own treatment works and reservoirs? If so, do you think this would make water cheaper or more expensive.

Eirgrid is the electricity equivalent, but it has not competition for the reasons you outline.

Power stations could have a water equivalent I suppose to have competition, but the network & meters and would still remain with the monopoly as they do with Eirgrid.

The Great British system, power, water, even rail, has the infrastructure owned and maintained by one company with the suppliers paying a set fee for the use of the infrastructure and have access to all customers on that infrastructure. i.e Virgin trains pay to use the rail lines they use to Network Rail who maintain the railway lines and signalling. Each company tenders for the services they wish to run.

I'd say due to economies of scale it wouldn't be feasible to do this for water, but Power, with the new interconnects, that's a different story a few years down the line.

Eh, no. Each of the water companies in GB own and maintain their own infrastructure.

[Maguire01]

Regulators don't always work out too well - remember the financial regulator around 2007

Loans MR Fitzpatrick took from his bank worth 94 million euros for himself were unethical not illegal because the regulator had no actual financial policies, procedure or actual regulation in place apart from high level references

Water privatization incl meters and f&f could be done in local regions, counties, councils. Not sure if that would be the way to go but certainly under licence without making the Irish water company another public sector lazy ass entity waste of money drain on the taxpayer exercise!

Private companies, in the absence of competition, still need a regulator.

And given your "public sector lazy ass entity" comments, why not privatise the health service too?

yes - I never said we didn't.
But a regulator with powers, plus more importantly, with actual policies and procedures. Unlike the old financial one.

So what powers, policies or procedures does the CER need that it doesn't have?

there is already competition in health sector. With a few private hospitals doing v well for themselves - blackrock, hermitage, galway etc etc

I wasn't talking about a handful of private hospitals (it's not like the presence of these hospitals are going to make the public health service more efficient). I asking if you would suggest privatising the public health system.

[foxcommander]

Awesome

http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2015/03/12/obama-dreading-arrival-of-that-irish-p***k-next-week/

[mikehunt]

Awesome

http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2015/03/12/obama-dreading-arrival-of-that-irish-p***k-next-week/

can imagine Obama asking Kenny to do Riverdance and Kenny obliging (after getting the nod from Dennis O Brien).

[foxcommander]

Awesome

http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2015/03/12/obama-dreading-arrival-of-that-irish-p***k-next-week/

can imagine Obama asking Kenny to do Riverdance and Kenny obliging (after getting the nod from Dennis O Brien).

Or if Angela is pulling the strings

[mikehunt]

Awesome

http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2015/03/12/obama-dreading-arrival-of-that-irish-p***k-next-week/

can imagine Obama asking Kenny to do Riverdance and Kenny obliging (after getting the nod from Dennis O Brien).

Or if Angela is pulling the strings

Class 

[foxcommander]

Awesome

http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2015/03/12/obama-dreading-arrival-of-that-irish-p***k-next-week/

can imagine Obama asking Kenny to do Riverdance and Kenny obliging (after getting the nod from Dennis O Brien).

Or if Angela is pulling the strings

Class 

I recognise that dance move...it's Walk the Dinosaur!

[Rossfan]

Both FG and Lab up 2 points each in latest poll.

[foxcommander]

New Caption Competition



- After years of talking smack about opponents, promising big wins and earning way too much on the back of your ego do you not think the public are bored by this never-ending farce?
- Speak for yourself Mr Hogan..

[Rossfan]

2polls in recent days show FG and Lab up 2 points each.FF stuck in the mud while SF's support dropping as people realise they are not the all new super whiter than white magicians after all.