Irish general election, 26th Feb 2016

[Jens]

Fun test - did a few different Dublin constituencies and got the Green candidate on top each time. But I've got some questions.
What is the deal with Irish Water? '
What's NAMA and JobBridge?
That hospital question. Is that about private hospitals or am I just being ignorant about the Irish healthcare system?
And that water metering deal. Is that based on the, for a Scandinavian, totally bizarre left-wing resistance against water feeds?

[Jens]

Fun test - did a few different Dublin constituencies and got the Green candidate on top each time. But I've got some questions.
What is the deal with Irish Water? '
What's NAMA and JobBridge?
That hospital question. Is that about private hospitals or am I just being ignorant about the Irish healthcare system?
And that water metering deal. Is that based on the, for a Scandinavian, totally bizarre left-wing resistance against water feeds?

Thanks for the answers - very informative. (and sorry about the late reply. Not really active here anymore)

Have an interesting election tomorrow
Irish Water is a recently established (by the incumbent government) state-run company that is in charge of the water supplies throughout the entire country. Historically the management of water has left to the county councils, a situation which has regularly led to problems with the supplies, but has meant that water was and has been free at the point of use (i.e. for the overwhelming majority of consumers). As part of the government's financial restructuring following the 2010 'bailout' by the International Monetary Fund, charges on the use of water have been introduced and it is Irish Water that will collect them which according to themselves which allow them to modernize the water supply and end many of the issues surrounding it as well as raising money for the state. However, the company has been dogged with problems, senior management have all come from the traditional Irish semi-state pseudo-entrepreneurial management class with expectations of high very salaries and bonuses at taxpayers' expenses. The idea of charging for water is extremely controversial and has bought one of the biggest public resistance campaigns in Irish history with, at present, only half paying. This shortfall in funds has required it to get more and more state subsidies to stay afloat. Finally there are constant rumours often only half-heartily denied that the long-term objective of the government towards Irish Water is to privatize it and end the public provision of water supplies with all that that would entail.

Wrt water metering. Before the introduction of Irish Water there was nothing in place to monitor the level of water usage by the public. In order for this to rectified and thus relate water charges to water usage Irish Water has gone around Ireland trying to install water meters outside people's homes. It is here where a lot of the resistance to Water Charges has taken place with residents regularly blocking roads and preventing the installation of meters. This has sometimes gone as far as threats and harassment of those installing the meters.

NAMA stands for National Asset Management Agency. It was a body set up under the Previous Fianna Fail led administration to administer the assets from the 'bad loans' that had been created during the property bubble of the previous decade. In short as the government nationalized the banks (which it would eventually do for all Irish banks) it would move the failing assets from these banks to NAMA which would then control the property. This has made NAMA the largest landowner in Europe(!). Now that property prices are rising again and this is absolutely not a new bubble because it's absolutely not a new bubble NAMA is starting to offload its massive portfolio. However, there are still swathes of unused and unoccupied property throughout the country which is held by NAMA and nobody is quite sure what to do with it.

Jobbridge is a social welfare scheme set up by the current government in which companies (very much including the civil service and state-run companies) can apply to the Department of Social Welfare to set up internships for the unemployed whose salaries will be paid by the Department. However, these salaries are not bound by minimum wage laws but rather at the rate of unemployment benefit + €50 a week. For someone over the age of 25 that would mean being paid €238 a week for a job which might be the standard 35-40 hours (and for someone 25 or under it would be even less). It is widely seen as exploitative of the workers involved and is widely hated on the left and the far left. Its record of giving long-term employment to either first time job seekers or long term job seekers is mixed at best and it has allowed the government to claim that unemployment is lower than it actually is. Many companies have been found trying to downgrade part of its 'main jobs' off to Jobbridge as to cut costs.

No, the hospitals question refers to all hospitals, whether public or private although in the Irish healthcare system the distinction isn't as clear cut as it is in other places.