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

It does not have to. Have many? The figure is high and excessive. I am interested to know how many contracts under €400,000 have been awarded without open competition and can Mr. Barry furnish the committee with the amount in total that has been awarded in any such contracts. Could it be possible that multiple such contracts were awarded and what is the amount in total; have some of those companies, for example, not entered a public competition at all?

The Government had committed that 80% of the revenue from this year's property tax would be dispersed to local authorities throughout the country. They reneged on that commitment towards the back end of last year and stated that the total proceeds, being €400 million, would be redirected to Irish Water. Can Mr. Tierney inform the committee how that funding is to be spent? Is it to go towards the capital or maintenance programme of the taxpayers' assets throughout the country that were formally held in trust by local authorities or how does Irish Water propose to spend that €400 million? Was there a similar budget proposal put to the Department as to that spend and was it agreed with the Minister, similar to what was agreed previously in relation to €180 million with €30 million contingency included that was obviously agreed with the Department and the Minister with responsibility for it in September or November 2012?