Ireland tried to privatise water a while back. During the "Celtic Tiger" boom that preceeded the global economic crash of 2008, the governed of the time smiled

Ireland tried to privatise water a while back. During the "Celtic Tiger" boom that preceeded the global economic crash of 2008, the governed of the time smiled on idea of privatised water, and were also being gently pressured by the EU to introduce it. Before they could do that, the crash happened. The government were pushed by the EU to bail out the banks and socialise the cost. Ireland was particularly screwed during the property crash for a bunch of reasons. First, we had no rent regulation and extremely low quality housing, so if you were renting your simply got screwed. Second, a large number of people had enough land to build a house on. Third, aside from these existing incentives, it's a peculiarity of Irish people that they need to own their own homes. (I say "peculiarity", even though I'm firmly in that camp - frankly I don't understand how other Europeans can sleep at night knowing that they'll rent forever and with no guarantee on the cost, and who knows what might happen to pensions in the future) Anyway, after the then government agreed to bail out Irish banks, the EU put the Finance Minister under pressure to introduce austerity. Up to this point only businesses, farmers etc actually got billed for water but regular citizens were not. It's was paid for under progressive taxation. So when the government tried to introduce water charges and privatisation, the backlash was huge. Arguments raged. Electorate: "Why introduce regressive charges that will disproportionately hurt the poorest?" Politicians: "Other EU have water charges, get with the program". Electorate: "So what? That's not an argument." Politicians: "Actually it's because the infrastructure is crumbling and needs investment, but we have no money because 'austerity'!" Electorate: "Why is it crumbling? Why didn't you invest in it during the Celtic Tiger boom?" Politicians: "Uh... well... That's beside the point! People are wasting water! We need to charge people for overuse!" Electorate: (Does some detective work) "Actually, due to our weather we don't water our lawns or own swimming pools. Our water usage is pretty flat across the social classes, unlike places like California and Florida. In fact our usage is comparable to that of England, who have similar weather and water charges." Politicians: "Ok, by privatising water, the market will make the system more efficient!" Electorate: "How will the introduction of a complex new billing system, meters, social welfare credits and a private company with its own organisational overhead, salaries, profits and bonuses ... make this cheaper or more efficient? Won't they just charge us more, pay themselves more and save costs by not investing in infrastructure? Politicians: "That's just stupid" Electorate: "Look at England" That whole debacle basically destroyed Ireland's Labour Party, who were in a coalition government at the time and backed the water project. They never recovered from that.