Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Martin for his range of questions. There is a lot on the Government agenda that has to be considered. This morning, at a meeting I called to deal with a number of matters, we approved the publication of the legislation dealing with free general practitioner care for children under six, the publication of the Bill dealing with climate change and carbon emissions, and the changes recommended by the Minister for Education and Science to the Bill previously known as the Teaching Council Bill. We also had our first discussion on a proposal from the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government on the introduction of water charges. This is all about equity, equality, affordability and fair pricing. The situation, as Deputy Martin is only too well aware, is that we have a completely inferior infrastructure for water in many parts of the country. This State has failed to invest properly in that infrastructure over the years and that is why the Irish Water utility was created in order that it can borrow money off the Government's balance sheet to provide the infrastructure for water for consumers and businesses and to maintain our attractiveness as a location for setting up businesses.

Deputy Martin asked a number of questions. The Ministers' memo sets out a range of issues that are important. The Government, comprising the two parties, Fine Gael and the Labour Party, is united in supporting the Government's priority that water charges would be fair, affordable and as equitable as possible. We started that discussion this morning. The Government noted the importance, in the context of our recovery plan, of ensuring Irish Water, like Bord Gáis and the ESB, would be classified as a commercial semi-State body, the finances of which are separate from the Government's. In that way, Irish Water can fund much higher levels of investment to fix the inferior infrastructure we have. We also noted the official advice from the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government that the level of taxpayer subvention for Irish Water, consistent with it being classified as a commercial State company, could not exceed €537 million in 2015 and 2016. That equates to an annual average metered charge of €240. The Government has not signed off on these figures. There has been intensive engagement between the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Central Statistics Office in recent weeks in order to understand the statistical rules that apply here in the context of how EUROSTAT conducts its business. Deputy Martin will be aware that the requirement to pass a market corporation test means that income from customers, ex-VAT where applicable, must be greater than 50% of production costs, including both consumption of fixed capital and interest. These are important elements. The CSO, in explaining the rules, has explained the maximum level of subvention that will be available.

The Government will continue to discuss the question of how to make this as affordable and fair as possible for different categories of families. There are vulnerable groups here. One includes those who live on their own and who may be very vulnerable, including pensioners. Another is families with children, where there is an obvious requirement for extra water. The question of the scale of metering, the level of assessment and the general issues that apply in respect of all these things must be agreed. Deputy Martin mentioned standing charges, which is a matter in respect of which the Minister will give detailed policy directions to the regulator, who starts the public consultation process tomorrow in respect of the structuring of the tariff. The regulator will move on later to a more detailed analysis dealing with the actual charges.

In answer to Deputy Martin, the issues he has raised, including vulnerability, ability to pay and standing charges, are all matters the Government will consider in the next two weeks, taking into account the overall headline figures under the rules as explained by the CSO in order for us to keep in line with the EUROSTAT requirements. If the market corporation test is failed, there would be an additional-----

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