Mr. John Mullins:

I will respond to Senator Landy. My apologies, I was coming to the Senator's questions. With respect to the issues related to septic tanks and flooding, we will not be responsible for that. I understand that issues related to flooding and flood protection measures will still be under the remit of the Office of Public Works. With respect of the septic tank inspection, that will not be a matter for us.

In the context of 2017, that will be a milestone. It is not a point that we would say the service level agreements will finish. I thought I said that earlier but if I did not I am saying it now. Local authorities have different positions with respect to the number of staff they have dealing with water services. Some have a minimal level and some have quite a full number in that service. Some use the private sector to support their services and some do not. As I said earlier, it is a patchwork quilt in terms of provision. As part of our due diligence process, we need to understand exactly how we will regionally structure matters such that we will retain the expertise Deputy McLoughlin talked about in Irish Water and fundamentally make sure we continue to perform that service.

I take on board the point about young people who have mortgages. Irish Water is not established to place a threat on young people with mortgages working in local authorities. At a SlPTU conference at which Jack O'Connor was present, I said that Irish Water is not established for there to be compulsory redundancies in local authorities. There have been situations where services have been privatised in the past and staff have been put into different divisions within local authorities. We have no control over that matter - it is an issue for the employer, which is the local authority. We have no influence over that matter. However, collectively, we must make sure there are operating efficiencies as we move forward, that we adapt to new technologies and change, bring in digital networks and make sure that we are doing the right thing for the customer at the least possible cost to ensure that the charge is the lowest possible. That is vitally important.

In terms of maintenance contracts, until such time as we are legally entitled to take on those contracts, we will not take them on. Therefore, we need to have legal capability such that those contracts can be novated on transfer of the assets. It is likely that those contracts will be transferred with the assets and we expect that will happen in 2014. My colleague, Mr. Cowhig, might like to add a further comment.