Letter in today’s Irish Times.
Sir,
Water is the new oil. Mega-banks such as Goldman Sachs, CitiGroup and JP Morgan are buying up water resources, engineering infrastructure and water rights worldwide. They know that, as water becomes more scarce with climate change and population growth, there are vast profits to be made. In addition, the lucrative potential of “big data” means that Irish Water, as an asset, is far more valuable with PPS numbers attached than without. Not just water, but our very identities are being commercialised without our consent.
The privatisation of water transgresses all notions of natural justice and threatens ordinary citizens with withdrawal of a life-giving resource that nobody should ever have to live in fear of losing. Privatisation of public services has repeatedly been shown to have disastrous consequences, in terms of quality of service, workers’ rights and value for money.
Any country where access to the basic prerequisites of life can only be guaranteed to the wealthy is a failed society. We elect our politicians to run the country on our behalf, to distribute resources and to ensure a minimum acceptable standard of living for all citizens. In the perennial battle between ordinary citizens and the profit-seeking corporations that seek to dominate and exploit us, we pay our politicians so we can be sure they are on our side? Are they?
Yours etc,
Maeve Halpin,
Dublin 6.
Mostly, they are not on our side, they are on their own side, the side of self interest and self perprtuation in positions of power and influence and increasing their own wealth. The finest example of this betrayal of the people happened at the 2011 election, the promises, the five point plan, not another cent, abolish the quangoes. The lies flowed freely from their mouths in populist rhetoric and the people should have known, there was a reason why Fine Gael was out for 15yrs.
The promise of “new politics” was an empty one, we just changed the colour of the winning chess pieces, as Fianna Fail looked after their friends in the Galway tent, Fine Gael look after theirs in the IFSC.
If politics is ever to be fair to the people the whip system must be removed and donations banned and the revolving door welded shut, it’s not as if the pension is bad.