The team responsible for Irish Water’s social media have found themselves in deep trouble today when they told a customer that ‘wetsers’ will be exempt from the new water charges that came into effect this week. The comment was made when a customer asked on their Facebook page if there will exemptions for college students. The team replied distastefully by saying, “We can’t speak for all students but if they pass our wetser test, then they will not charged for uncontrollable leaking.”
The derogative term ‘wetser’ has become slang in Irish pop culture in recent years and usually refers to an attractive female. In a week that has witnessed one of their board members acting as a junior minister’s personal driver and for generally being detested by the public for the new taxes, Irish Water’s public relations mishap could not come at a worse time.
A spokesperson responded to the criticism about their ‘wetser’ comments by saying, “That was an unfortunate comment for the Facebook page to make. It is not fair to charge people on a superficial basis. Beauty is subjective; one person’s ‘wetser’ could be another person’s minger. We endeavour to charge all our customers at a fair rate, regardless of their appearance. The only people that will receive special treatment are TDs and Senators looking to get exemptions on their water tax by charging it to their second homes.”
The Irish Government have not responded to the incident yet but are expected to release in the coming days.