Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will deal with the matters raised by Deputy Cowen. In 2012, the Local Government Fund gave us approximately €1.12 billion which was made up of the motor tax and various other receipts. We had to take out the €160 million Exchequer contribution for 2012 in the Estimates and introduce the household charge. When it came to the third quarter of the year where people were not performing to the extent that they should and where people were advocating that they should not pay, obviously, counties were going to suffer a little in the provision of those services if the money was not coming in.

We estimated there would be a deficit of about €45 million by the end of the year. The Department absorbed €30 million, with €15 million to be absorbed by the local authorities. The Department absorbed a significant portion of the deficit which had to be found elsewhere by means of savings.

A total of €830 million of savings has been achieved in the local government system since 2008. Unfortunately, much of this saving was brought about by a reduction in staff numbers. Local authorities are under-staffed and there is a shortage of outdoor staff. I am very conscious that they will find it difficult to address this situation in 2013 because we have a financial ceiling imposed by the agreement with the troika. I am not in a position to answer the questions about property tax because I have not brought proposals to Government as yet. It will be part of the budgetary considerations. Questions about the amount to be levied, the amount to be included in the local government fund, are matters to be teased out between the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Department of Finance, between now and the budget.

A provision of €10 million is provided to set up the structure for the establishment of Irish Water in 2013. Legislation to set up Irish Water on an interim basis will be brought forward pending the full implementation in 2013. The cost of metering will be paid out of a loan from the National Pensions Reserve Fund. It will not be included in the Department's Estimates as metering will be rolled out over a number of years.

We have made some progress on the EU-related programmes-----