Readers are kept in the dark as to who is asking or answering the questions. This, I suspect, is intentional, as the piece must surely have originated from the propaganda office at Irish Water headquarters.
I suspect that Pope was ‘instructed’ to publish the piece, which is fully in line with the Irish Times’ strong pro Irish Water/Government stance.
I further suspect that the anonymous Q&A format was a trick to fool readers into thinking that a professional/neutral expert was being asked the questions.
This device was probably a concession to Pope to mitigate journalistic embarrassment.
