IRISH WATER HAS said that some 21% of the people employed through its metering programme were unemployed before they took up their current role, though less than 10% of workers outside of metering were taken from the live register.

There were 1,300 jobs in total created through the water company’s controversial metering programme. Of those, 53% were employees of SMEs and 10% were either graduates, school leavers or apprentices.

The company told TheJournal.ie that this means 84% of these jobs have been obtained by those in one of those three ‘social inclusion’ categories, exceeding the government’s target of 25%.

These meter installers have borne the brunt of local protests across the country as people show their strong opposition to what they consider another tax. Larger scale demonstrations are still taking place all across Ireland and are bringing tens of thousands of people out on the streets.

Just yesterday, Tánaiste Joan Burton was trapped in her car by water charge protesters for hours after she attended a graduation ceremony in Tallaght.

Outside of the metering programme, Irish Water said the number of workers taken off the live register was much lower as most of them are moving over from local authorities. Just 8.5% of the company’s workforce were unemployed prior to taking up their position.

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