Tuesday 24 August 2010

Rime of the ancient NI Water mariner

AND the wedding guest regaled all with his tale of abandonment on the high seas:

“Water, water everywhere, and all the boards did shrink,

Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink...”

Were Samuel Taylor Coleridge alive now, goodness only knows what rhyming couplets he would deploy to describe the current situation at NI Water!

A suspended permanent secretary, sacked board members, numerous investigations, leaked emails and the semi-detached state owned NI Water mired in sewage-like supposition.

At this stage it would be inappropriate to comment further, except to say that this is a real opportunity for Northern Ireland politicians to behave maturely and with wisdom.

There is an opportunity to carve through the morass and leave aside petty politics. Already there has been point scoring. If they were to leave that aside, gain clear answers, translated in a way that the public can understand, then the esteem of politicians would grow.

If they do not, how will they even begin to implement water charges?

NI Water could be, to use a poetic device of Coleridge, the albatross round NI Executive ministers collective necks.

No comments: