Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Back-in or the back end.
Mr. Barry obviously supports the model that the Government has charged him with the responsibility of implementing. Personally, I do not agree with that model and I do not necessarily agree that he has inherited a series of ad hoclocal authority systems throughout the country. I am mindful of the fact that 33% of Irish Water's staff came from the local authority system and almost half of its executive are from the local authority system. That is for another day. We will agree to differ.
There are two or three other points I want to make. On the savings of €2 billion predicted to be achieved by 2021 that have been mentioned, they state there are 4,300 in the local authority system for all of whom, I presume, there are service level agreements for the future and 510 will be employed in Irish Water in the coming months altogether. That brings a total of almost 5,000 employed, directly and indirectly. Can they give an indication of what they expect the staffing levels to be come 2021 and will staffing cost contribute to the savings? Although it is a little far ahead to look at, it does not augur well for a continued service level agreement beyond the 12 years for which it is in place.
In terms of procurement, I am conscious of the efforts the witnesses made to answer the questions from Senator Healy Eames earlier, specifically on the story that was carried in one of the newspapers this morning. Is €400,000 the threshold for public procurement?