Across the World, Privatisation of State Enterprises Benefits the Few to the detriment of the Many.

From Kosovo to Russia, from Greece to Ireland, the widespread selling of state assets since the early 1990s has robbed citizenry of essential services and made huge fortunes for small elites who are well connected to the political establishments. In the process former state companies have been broken up and stripped of their assets, infrastructure divided up piecemeal, local authorities downsized, public services outsourced, huge numbers of jobs lost and the economic sovereignty of countries sacrificed. Under the guise of globalisation, we are experiencing a new type of neo-colonialism.
Irish Water is part of this trend. Who loses?- The Irish public who are been forced to pay for something that was always theirs.
Who benefits? Denis O'Brien whose company secures the contract for water meters, the same man who according to the tax-payer Moriarty Tribunal corrupted Irish politics, and those speculators waiting on the sidelines until the inevitable privatisation of the Irish Water.
Well done to all those 50,000+ who turned out in Dublin last Saturday to condemn the largest robbery in the history of the state.
The only way to protect our waters is to insert into the Irish constitution that this resource belongs to the Irish people and not the Irish state. For we cannot thrust governments who receive funds from big business to put people before the profits of the few.

Check out excellent BBC piece entitled

Leaving Kosovo: Exodus of young people as frustration soars