Messages

Havent heard any of the rumours but this isnt the time or place for them.
A terrible tragedy for her, her family and her husband.
God help them all.

RIP.

Saw Inception at the weekend, I thought it was a great show. 9/10 for me.
I also so, Bounty Hunter....absolute tripe.... -1/10.

The R4 cards have evolved along with the DS.
There is an R4 which works with the DS Lite, and the new R4i which works with DSi and DS Lite.
If you have a DSi with an R4 card it wont work no matter what firmware you have.

"Fit for purpose" is a term used for quality.

So the question is, is NI Water Service giving "quality" to it's customers?

The answer is an undoubted YES!

The quality of our water is first class.

The work carried out in extreme conditions by the men on the ground to repair the burst pipes was beyond reproach.  How many could have gone out in sub-zero conditions and carried out repairs on pipes and dug through mud when they should have been at home with their families at Christmas?

The work carried out in disposing of the sewage from our is first class.

Do we ever give a thought to this quality product from the hundreds of people working on a daily basis on jobs that most of us wouldn't want to do or even give much thought to when we turn on a tap, switch on a washing machine, take a bath or shower or flush the toilet?

It is vital to disconnect the response to the crisis by the management of NIW from the work by the employees in so many areas.

This thread made no distinction between managment and staff for a reason. NI Water are a "Company" comprising managment and staff. It wasnt intended to suggest who exactly in NI Water was to blame...purely to pose the question "Are NI Water fit to provide the service they are in place to provide?". I phrased this question as "fit for purpose" which some people seem to take offence to....whatever they like.
IMO NI Water as it is, is not capable of providing the service they are in place to provide. Someone mentioned quality of water, that very much depends on where you live. Ours isnt great at the best of times. I also know people who live in areas where the water goes off regulalry. A number of times every month without fail, with no explanation from NI Water. And now we have this episode.

I would be opposed to privatising the Water providor here for a number of reasons - most have already been mentioned.
It wouldnt guarantee any improvement, it would line the pockets of privateers at the expense of the public but mainly IMO water is a fundamental right that we shouldnt have to pay for over and above our domestic rates.
I dont see the point of metering all private households as I cant see that there would be huge differences in the water usage of each house.
I think NI Water should remain, but it needs restructured and re-organised. It should be given a budget (taken from the rates fees) and be given a set of targets it needs to meet every year. Part of those targets should be an upgrade of the system, but should also include detailed plans on how to manage the existing system during the course of the upgrade. Over time as more of the system is upgraded, less time and money would need to be spent on the existing system.
First priority for NI Water though should be that all outages must be repaired within certain time frames. How they do this should be taken into account as part of the restructure I believe the company need.

[especially people with young families]

Not everyone wants to work over christmas, especially people with young families.

What about the people with young families and no water? Surely it's more of a concern that those who actually need water takes precedence over those who have the desire to be with their families?

Water should be a 365 days per year commodity (where at all possible), and if (some) employees of NIW are uncomfortable with that thought perhaps they're in the wrong job.

This is exactly the point I made on the phone to one of the NI Water complainants! NI Water are supposed to provide water 365 days a year. How they do that is up to them.....however I would have thought given the current economic climate that people are glad to have work of any sort and will work as much as possible when given the opportunity. You work for NI Water BigFella?
I work in a private company and the only day of the year they actually close is Xmas day....but we still provide cover on Xmas day for emergencies. In any contract of employment it generally states your contracted hours and salary and that you can be asked to work additional hours at the company's discretion. If NI Water staff do not want to work in extenuating circumstances then its time NI Water employed the staff who will so that they can provide the service they are contracted to do.
NI Water also have a lot of sub-contractors they can use if their own staff are unwilling anyway....so why werent they called in over Xmas?

One of the major problems was that they wouldnt pay staff to work over xmas. I was told a number of times on the phone that they only had skeleton staff working. Now our water went off the day before xmas eve. When I reported it they said that our was actually they only outage they had reported which was due to a burst water main and the rest were private issues so it should get fixed soon. They had some problem finding the source of the burst, which I dont understand as we are in a town and the houses before and after our estate all had water. So our water wasnt fixed on Xmas eve. I was told that the ground was too hard for them to excavate! There must be some crappy diggers in NI Water.
Anyway, the point is, if they had more than a skeleton staff on over Xmas and had fixed the isolated issues when they first started to appear, it would have taken the pressure off when the rest of the outages appeared due to a thaw. The only reason for them not doing this is money. They would have had to pay the engineers more over xmas. So they were happy to let people go without so they could save a quid. Now everyone is suffereing for this ineptitude.

After getting our water back on following an outage from 23rd to 28th December I'm totally peeved at NI Water. I got confilcting stories from different call centre employees, complaints from them about having to work over Christmas and finally not even able to get through to them. On the one hand they told me they only had skeleton staff over Xmas and on the other now all over the news they supposedly had extra staff on over Xmas! I was offered alternative water supply on Christmas eve and didnt get anything until boxing day, even though I offered to collect water anywhere it was available! I dont believe anything from them at this point.
I think they're badly managed and not fit for purpose. Our rates pay for them and we may get water charges added in on top of that!
Hopefully this poll will help highlight what people really think of NI Water after recent events.

Conleth Gilligan and Eamon Burns are two who never fulfulled the potential in the county colours that they showed at either club or underage level. Mark Lynch is heading that way to I fear.

A bit harsh on Burnsy there....he was fantastic at underage winning all-ireland minor (maybe U21 too), hogan cup and McCrory medals. Played his part in the All-Ireland win in '93 coming on as a sub in the final. Spent a number of years on the Derry panel when Derry were very strong so maybe didnt stand out as much as expected but I wouldnt go as far as saying he didnt fulfill his potential. He only stopped playing senior football about 2 seasons ago and he could still do a job up till then.

In Derry circles, David O'Neill of Bellaghy...made the county setup and was a great full back, but I think he had health problems which forced him out.

A bit early to comment on Mark Lynch, but I think he's been one of Derry's better players in the last couple of years.

My dad recently bought a new tv with built in freeview....and RTE is actaully recieved on the digital channels. I can only get an analogue signal though.

If you dont mind me asking what tv did he buy?

I dont know exactly what model but it was a new Samsung. I bought a Samsung about Febuary this year but the one he bought seems to have been upgraded since mine, though it was around the same price.

What's the current capacity of Casement?

I'm in no way begrudging of it, in fact its good to see investment. The only issue I have is that of traffic. The area cant handle the traffic currently on the occassion of a big match. How will they cope with increased capacity?
there is also the risk that unless there is a near capacity crowd, the atmosphere is dull...
All that being said, I hope it all comes off I just hope there's a bit of forward planning for traffic control.

My dad recently bought a new tv with built in freeview....and RTE is actaully recieved on the digital channels. I can only get an analogue signal though.

                       Shane O'Kane

Ciaran Mullan     Davy McLaughlin     Oisin Duffy

Sean Leo           Barry McG            Gerard O'Kane

        Blaine Gormley            Niall Holly

Declan Mullan       Skinner   Stephen Cleary

Mark Lynch           Paddy B   Lee Moore

Subs
Sean Marty
Brian Mullan
Ciaran McGoldrick
Cathal McKeever
PJ McCloskey
Liam Hinphey
Aidy McLaughlin
'The Cat' McGeogh

Forget about South Derry Mr Brennan 

Now i would go to see a south Derry team play them hallions.

the game will be in Celtic Park

Not at all....it'll be in the 'Screen on our new Prunty Pitch

Really looking forward to the game today....like a lot of people at the start of the year my money would have been on Cork. But having watched Down progress this year and the brand of football they have been playing I think so far they have been the team of the year and deserve to win.
A lot of people talking about Cork hunger having been beaten in finals.....what about Down hunger, havent been in a final since '94.
I think Down have the winnings of this and I hope the do too. I like to see the team that plays the best football to win and the fact that they are from the north is a bonus!

Down Abu!

Ever since the Kerry game i have fancied down to go on and win the AI.
Having since watched cork stumble through against a reasonable but inexperienced Dublin side, and Down pip Kildare (though I thought Down much the better side) I've seen nothing to change my mind.
I think Down have a great mix of youth, experience, guile, mobility, skill and organisation and IMO they play with comlete confidence whereas Cork alway seem to bottle it at the last (except fo the Dublin game). Cork of some fantastic players but they just dont seem to have played well this year, even though they are in a final.
As I say, it's only my opinion but I think Down will win by 5-6 points. I quite like Cork, but I'd love to see Down go on and win it now as I think the brand of football they have played this year is refreshing and exciting.