Ms Cathy Mannion:

It is a mix of all of those things. Irish Water provides the Commission for Energy Regulation with an investment plan. We examine the costs set out in that plan to see what is reasonable and what is not. We are developing a memorandum of understanding on how best to work with the Environmental Protection Agency which is responsible for the quality of water. This is one of the areas we need to work our way through. The agency will state what projects it thinks should be built, just as we will. It is a question of finding a balance. A separate discussion is taking place about the level of Government subvention. In the interim period, investment in water infrastructure will be funded partly from the Government's subvention and partly from tariffs imposed on domestic and non-domestic consumers. We will sit down with the Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and Irish Water to see what we can do during the interim period - the next two years - with the money available. I am quite sure we will take account of the level of subvention that is realistically available and the ability of customers to pay their bills. We will all have to work together to see how best the constrained level of funds available can be used.